The Hill News

There’s one bromide any decent physician endorses â€" the one about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure. When it comes to ending the AIDS pandemic, U.S. policymakers from both sides of the aisle have embraced this notion as well, providing unwavering, bipartisan support for the global effort to end AIDS, which has already claimed nearly 30 million lives and left another 33 million infected.

U.S. government support for research into HIV prevention â€" most notably an AIDS vaccine â€" has been crucial to seeding what scientists are calling a prevention revolution. Without it, we would not be where we are today: The sheer risk of taking on AIDS vaccine development is a significant disincentive to private sector investment. This has resulted in a classic market failure that can only be surmounted with government support. World AIDS Vaccine Day provides an opportunity to consider why this support is also smart long-term policy â€" why it makes sens! e not just in medical terms, but in financial ones as well. 

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