The big news story this week in health is about the baby who was deemed cured from HIV. 

Of course this is absolutely wonderful news. 

However, the much, much bigger story is the massive public health success that, through strategic interventions, has reduced the number of babies being born with HIV in America in the past 20 years.

Number of babies born with HIV in New York State:

1997: 97
2010: 3

That is success. It’s of course wonderful that those 3 beautiful babies now have the potential to be cured of HIV. But we have to understand that public health solved almost 100% of the problem. The remainder was solved by the medical world.