THE AIDS FIGHT IS FAR FROM OVER

Put the smartest scientific minds in a computer lab. Give them all
the time and money in the world to design the perfect organism. It's
doubtful they could come up with a tougher, more wily creation than
the virus that causes AIDS.

Ponder its track record: Decades after it terrorized American cities,
HIV was largely quelled through prevention, awareness and
life-extending drugs. The national infection rate has steadied at
40,000 new cases for years.

But the bug is back and in ways that make it as troubling as ever. In
the recent past, the new cases were mostly found among needle users,
a definably small (and politically unappealing) group. That's why
this country has pretty much gone to sleep on a topic that once
produced Hollywood movies, books and endless strategizing.

Now, HIV is heading back for a return engagement if the indicators
are right. This time, the scourge needs to be finished off once and for all.

One report in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds
infection rates rising among gay men, the group that first
encountered HIV and battled back. Why the relapse? According to the
health experts who wrote the report, the danger of HIV and AIDS is
"not as frightening as it was," thanks to drugs that can forestall a
full-blown case. Successful medicine invites complacency, it seems.

The second dose of bad news is a study breaking down HIV rates in
Washington, D.C. The highest percentage of infected residents there
are heterosexuals, not needle users or gay men. Though the nation's
capital has a notably lousy health system, HIV has taken full
advantage and broken out of its familiar boundaries. It's now
behaving as it does in sub-Saharan Africa: reaching into the lives
across the board: pregnant moms, men, women and families.

Decades into the AIDS plague, the answers are ready if the will can
be found. Education and prevention - including wider testing - should
be adopted to catch infection early. Also, a ban on federal money for
needle exchange programs should be lifted. All three leading
Democratic presidential contenders now favor allowing federal money
for such needle swaps, a sign that a once-touchy idea is a now a
so-what notion. On the GOP side, no one is railing against needle giveaways.

This Saturday marks the 20th World AIDS Day, one of those calendar
markings that sounds contrived. But with the deadly - and avoidable -
numbers heading in new directions, it's a moment to mark. The fight
is nowhere near over.