UNESCO VERSUS HIV/AIDS: THE HISTORY AND TEN LESSONS Gudmund Hernes On 5 June 1981, Michael Gottlieb, an assistant professor of immunology at the UCLA School of Medicine, published an article in the Center for Disease Control’s Morbidity and mortality weekly report on five cases of a rare disease, Pneumocystis carnii pneumonia among homosexual males. These were the first five cases of what later was to become known as the acquired immune deficiency syndrome – AIDS. What was not known at this time was that although only five cases were reported, thou- sands more people were already infected with the human immuno-deficiency virus – HIV. The nature of the disease inhibits discovery – the incubation period between the infection and is manifestation is long – and at the time we did not even know what the agent of infection was. Moreover, not only do the infected not know, but neither can those not infected because for so many years there are no outward signs of the disease. Lesson 1: The virus has always been way ahead of the disease Now, twenty years after the first discovery, some 60 million people are infected – corresponding to the whole population of France, of the United Kingdom or of Prospects, vol. XXXII, no. 2, June 2002 Original language: English Gudmund Hernes (Norway) Ph.D. in sociology, Johns Hopkins University (1971). He was appointed Director of the IIEP in 1999. Under-Secretary of Planning in the Norwegian Government (1980–1981), then Minister of Education, Research and Ecclesiastic Affairs (1990–1995) responsible for the implementa- tion of the comprehensive education reform, then Minister of Health (1995–1997). He has also held several academic positions including Professor at the Universities of Bergen and Oslo, Visiting Professor at Harvard University and Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. Chairman of several Royal Commissions in Norway and has served on committees for various international bodies. E-mail: g.hernes@iiep.unesco.org VIEWPOINTS/CONTROVERSIES