Since the finding of HIV 30 years ago, this virus has caused about 60 million infections and 30 million deaths. For the time being, there is no vaccine on the market and although there are interesting results of preventive and therapeutic vaccines at research, they still need to be evaluated with caution until they can be scientifically demonstrated for different populations and circumstances. Antiretroviral treatments have also allowed a change in the course of the epidemic, but they are not the solution to end HIV/AIDS.

It is important to consider that almost 70% of infections occur in Africa, where access to treatment is very limited. In addition, infected people who are prescribed treatments do not always comply with them; there are more and more variants of the virus on which some drugs do not work, and people on treatment often rely excessively on these, neglecting other preventive measures. High impact scientific journals have recently commented on these possible negative consequences in relation to the possibility of using antiretroviral drugs to try to prevent sexual transmission of HIV in serodiscordant couples (one partner has HIV/AIDS). Taking into account these data and knowing that more than 80% of cases worldwide are acquired sexually, one of the keys to preventing new infections lies in changing sexual behavior.

Early initiation of sexual relations and having several partners at the same time or throughout life constitute risk behaviors. Based on scientific data , preventive campaigns should promote delaying the onset of sexual relations in young people (15-24 year olds account for an estimated 45% of new infections) as well as decreasing the number of partners issue . Finally, the importance of early diagnosis is currently being highlighted given the high issue of undiagnosed HIV-infected persons; these are at greater risk of developing AIDS and dying and also transmitting new infections. Further research is needed on this recent but devastating disease.