The deadly effect of HIV/Aids is now like "a tsunami killing over 250,000 people each month" and more scientific work is needed to tackle it, one of the founders of the virus has warned.
Professor Robert Gallo, who helped identify the HIV virus nearly 25 years ago, points out the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people.
HIV has killed about 30 million people and about 40 million are infected.
He fears the "paramount role" of science in battling the epidemic could be undercut due to the "growing gap" with those involved in the key work of caring for sufferers.
Writing in the Student BMJ, he said: "The future The HIV/AIDS problem takes more than medical scientists and clinicians. It necessarily involves other social and healthcare workers and support groups.
"Nevertheless, I fear that their growing involvement could overshadow the paramount role that must be played by science. We have already seen this phenomenon occur at some of the large international AIDS meetings."
Professor Gallo of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland in Baltimore developed the HIV/AIDS blood test.
It is now a vital global tool in combating illness because it is safe, sensitive, specific rapid and inexpensive.
With a virological cure unlikely Professor Gallo remains hopeful that science will one day come up with the ultimate answer - a preventive vaccine.
Recent advances in understanding how HIV enters the cells and its structure have bolstered his hopes but it still remains a formidable challenge.
