Revised: point already made in another posting.

If we were ruthless enough and put enough resources into it we could wipe out AIDS today.Sure it would mean putting tens of million millions (including most of the population of several medium sized countries) into quarantine for life (or just killing them to save us the cost of building and maintaining a quarantine facility the size of Mexico) and testing billions for the virus several times over a period of a few years, but it could be done.Sure we may have to cordon off Africa for 25 years to make sure it doesn't pop up again, but it could be done.HIV spreads only by direct human to human contact and is therefore containable using such draconian measures.Airborne virusses are impossible to contain that way. Mind I don't advocate such measures, even though I'm extremely paranoid and they would mean less risk to me in the long run.In the short term it's too easy for people in power to abuse such schemes to get rid of "elements" they don't like and corruption is too likely to get some infected people excluded from the quarantine (so it's in part my paranoia that tells me it's not a good idea ;) ).It's also too expensive, too hard on the economy and society as a whole.