New drugs cause prevention complacency.

• Position: Aids - Brief Article

A false impression about new drugs to control AIDS may be putting more Americans at risk to contract this disease, relates Bill Yarber, senior director of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention at Indiana University, Bloomington. "We have to impress upon people that these new drugs that help control AIDS are not a cure. They keep the [HIV] virus in check, but they do not cure it. And they also don't work for everyone."

Yarber, who has more than 25 years of experience in AIDS education and prevention, agrees with comments made recently in South Africa at the 13th International Conference on AIDS that an increasing number of Americans are putting themselves at risk for the disease because of their sex and drug behaviors. "Many people, particularly young men who have sex with other men, are becoming overconfident because of the new treatment drugs and how effective...