30 Years On, AIDS Still 'Growing Epidemic'

Dr. Kenneth Mayer, professor of medicine and community health at Brown University, treated some of the first AIDS patients in the U.S., before the disease had a name or a known cause. He's still treating it and says that while we have made progress by identifying the virus and learning to manage it, the epidemic is still a threat.

"There are less than two million people [worldwide]  dying of AIDS every year, but more than two and a half million people becoming newly infected-- so we still continue to have a growing epidemic," Dr. Mayer told WBUR's Here & Now.

Dr. Mayer said there are around 56,000 new infections in the U.S. each year, an average of one person every 9.5 minutes. In some parts of the U.S., infection rates are nearly as high as they are in the worst hit parts of Africa.