Human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis B virus exact a high toll worldwide. Both can lead to chronic disease, cancer, and death, and neither can be eradicated with the use of current therapies. Coinfection with the two viruses represents a major global health problem.

By 2015, half of HIV-infected U.S. patients will be older than 50 years of age. As antiretroviral therapy coverage expands globally, the aging of the epidemic will be mirrored in developing countries. Yet the world is unprepared to deal with an aging population with HIV.

HIV infection is now a chronic, treatable disease, and transmission is readily preventable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend expanding HIV screening and eliminating unique requirements for informed consent, but not all states have done so.

Should U.S. adolescents and adults be screened routinely for HIV? The same evidence has led the top U.S. public health agency and the body charged with providing scientifically grounded recommendations on preventive interventions to dramatically different conclusions.

Collaboration between academic researchers and private companies is essential to medical innovation and development. A recent Supreme Court decision focused on contracts between these parties and the public's interest in agreements involving federally funded research.

Since our natural immune response to HIV infection is ineffective, a key goal for an HIV vaccine is to induce a response different from that induced by natural infection — an “unnatural immunity,” involving production of broadly neutralizing antibodies.

In preparation for the UN General Assembly's upcoming meeting on addressing global noncommunicable diseases, it is worth reexamining the global experience with HIV–AIDS for lessons that may be applicable to initiatives for noncommunicable diseases.