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A man reads education literature as he waits for an HIV test at a free mobile testing center in Los Angeles offered by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and the Magic Johnson Foundation.

HIV and AIDS treatment has improved dramatically in recent years, but a spate of new statistics released recently by the Center for Disease Control show that a significant percentage of infected Americans are not managing their care.

If fact, 20 percent of the 1.2 million Americans who are HIV positive are not aware that they have the infection – that's 240,000 Americans who don't even know that they are HIV positive. Research in treatment has found that those infected are significantly more contagious in the early stages of the infection, meaning that many who contract HIV have been in contact with someone who likely isn't aware that they have it. This makes early diagnosis and treatment crucial in the fight against AIDS. The most at-risk groups continue to be minorities and men who have sex with men, making the advocacy of managed treatment an uphill climb in today's cash strapped financial climate.

WEIGH IN:

What is the most effective way to derail the AIDS epidemic? Are current advocacy strategies working?

Guests:

Grace M. Aldrovandi, M.D.,The Saban Research Institute of Childrens
Hospital Los Angeles and associate professor of Pediatrics at the Keck
School of Medicine of USC

Ronald Johnson, vice president, policy and advocacy AIDS United