World AIDS Day, where people around the worlda

World AIDS Day, where people around the world rally to raise funds and awareness to combat the still-potent global pandemic. But 30 years after the auto-immune disease surfaced in Central Africa, there remains no cure and no vaccine.

In western countries, drug cocktails that include anti-retrovirals can manage AIDS and reduce levels of the HIV virus to undetectable amounts, but small, self-replicating viral reservoirs remain in patients' immune systems. Properly medicated HIV-positive people can now live relatively normal lives, but eliminating the virus entirely remains elusive.

Still, there is hope in some fields.

Some researchers have tried using a cancer drug to attempt to force the virus out of resting immune cells, and others have examined the possibility of using costly gene therapy or bone marrow transplants. A recent vaccine trial in Thailand has also shown promising results for reducing incidences of HIV.

Still, AIDS is most devastating in countries where high-tech solutions are simply not practical. For many, controlling the AIDS pandemic is about prevention first and foremost. Scientists have had luck with using preventive anti-retroviral drugs to slow the spread of HIV, and simpler solutions like promoting male circumcision have also been shown to reduce the spread of HIV.

Last week, a report by UNAIDS said that 56 countries had slowed or stopped the spread of HIV, and while data shows that the pandemic has slowed by about 20 percent in the past 10 years, 2.6 million people were still newly infected with the virus in 2009.