Whilst the cause and nature of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) remains a mystery, our scientists tell us that HIV is a member of the retrovirus family, and that it often leads to Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). We are told that AIDS causes our immune system to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections, making it one of the biggest dangers for us humans in the present day, although the predicted outbreak amongst the general heterosexual population in most industrialised countries has failed to materialise, and science has yet to explain why. Testing on a person who is suspected to be HIV+ is only ever done by measuring the levels of HIV anti-bodies in their system, rather than by measuring the amount of the actual HIV virus which is in their bodies. This is because scientists have no accurate way of testing the HIV virus itself yet, and to further confuse our knowledge of the virus, the levels of HIV anti-bodies - which occur naturally in every persons bodies - that must be reached for a positive diagnosis (HIV+) differ greatly from country to country, and even from state to state in the US. For example, this means you could be HIV+ in some American cities, but be considered not infected in other US cities or abroad.

Every two years the United Nations UNAIDS agency releases a report which gauges the extent of the AIDS pandemic, and the figures quoted above are mostly taken from the last such report, published in 2008. It estimates that over 33 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2007, and that over 2 million died in that year, including over 300,000 children. Over three-quarters of AIDS-related deaths occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa, where testing is virtually non-existent, and where similar numbers of people would be expected to die from malnutrition which often exhibits the exact same symptoms as AIDS. Along with those who are living in poverty throughout the World, these apparent high prevalence rates of HIV infected-people only co-exists within the gay community and amongst those who take recreational drugs, which has lead to may people questioning this disease. Some believe that HIV has always existed and is linked to the breakdown of the body due to malnutrition or drugs, or that it was introduced through some government-sponsored program in the mid-twentieth century, or that it doesn't exist at all. The Duesberg hypothesis being the most famous of those theory's which proclaims that HIV does not cause AIDS. What is clear, is that the ridiculous amounts of money which is spent on research, medications and treatments for those who are infected with the HIV virus has not lead to any major breakthroughs to this day.

The next 'UNAIDS Report on the global AIDS epidemic' is due out in late 2010.