Can HIV/ AIDS be controlled

here is current-ly no cure for the acquired immune defi-ciency syn-drome (AIDS). Medication can suppress the human immunodeficien-cy virus (HIV), as described in this article, but can never eradicate it completely. High levels of HIV occur in most cases during all stages of infection, and it is esti-mated that as many as 1010 viruses are produced and destroyed in an infected individual each day [1]. HIV/AIDS is therefore a deadly serious and incurable disease—the title of this article should not create the impression that it is not. In fact, AIDS can cause tremen-dous suffering, leading often to death by complications. Estimates for 2002 show that 4.69 million South Africans are infected with HIV, and that by the year 2008, half a million South Africans will die every year from AIDS-related causes [2]. Given this dire situa-tion, and the realization that students generally fall into a high-risk group, the University of Pretoria, the largest residential universi-ty in South Africa, has launched several initiatives to promote the under-standing of the disease among its student popula-tion. Recent initiatives include the development of an HIV/AIDS educational CD [3],[4], and the use of an HIV/AIDS model in an introductory control course to illustrate standard control systems material. The CD, which contains various HIV/AIDS models [5] packaged as Java Applets, complements the text [6] that is prescribed for this course