Today is World AIDS Day.

It has been a while since AIDS has been front-page news in this country, so it may be easy to dismiss HIV — the viral infection that causes AIDS — as a serious public health threat. But within the past five months, three new cases of HIV have been diagnosed in Lewis and Clark County.

Dramatic advances in antiretroviral therapies for HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) have changed the way we view acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, a disease that was considered a death sentence as recently as 20 years ago. AIDS is an equal opportunity disease — with men and women, young and old, all socio-economic and cultural groups impacted and susceptible. The health department tracks incidence of the disease, and provides prevention, education and case management services to mitigate the spread of HIV.

What caught the health department’s attention with the three new HIV cases is: 1) all three occurred in young males, and 2) Lewis and Clark County rarely has more than one HIV diagnosis a year, and sometimes, none at all.

The young men recently diagnosed with HIV in our county are too young to remember the headlines that were so prevalent two decades ago. By the mid-’90s, HIV infection was transformed from a progressive, almost universally fatal illness to the chronic, manageable disease that it is today.

“The speed at which this transformation took place is unprecedented in medical history,” according to Joel Gallant, MD, who has devoted his medical career to HIV research, education and treatment. “However, HIV infection is still a serious, life-altering, and sometimes life-threatening disease.”

By the end of last year, a total of 895 cases of HIV and AIDS had been reported to the Montana Department of Health and Human Services since 1985; 575 of those were first diagnosed in Montana. Though Montana is considered a low incidence state, between 16 and 27 new cases were diagnosed every year from 2000 to 2007.

HIV can be transmitted through unprotected sexual contact with an HIV partner, shared needles and breast milk. Men having sex with men make up roughly two-thirds of all people living with HIV/AIDS in Montana. An average of 12 such new cases have been diagnosed each year since 2000.

The rural nature and culture of Montana complicate our efforts to educate people about this disease. The misperception many here in Montana have about the disease is: “AIDS is an urban problem; it just doesn’t happen here.”

Over time, the annual number of deaths among people living with HIV/AIDS has slowed, while the number of reported cases continues to increase. The clear message is that HIV is in Montana. It does not discriminate based on race or socioeconomic class. HIV can be effectively prevented by the use of condoms. It is also easy to test for.

If there is any question at all about possible HIV infection, come to the Lewis and Clark City-County Health Department for a confidential test. We offer the test Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can call our HIV prevention specialist at 461-1001 to schedule a “rapid test” that will give you results in 20 minutes.

If you test positive, you will be referred to a social worker who will connect you with appropriate medical care and make arrangements for financial assistance if needed. Antiretroviral medications are expensive but assistance for the uninsured or underinsured is available through the federal AIDS Drug Assistance Program and the Ryan White Program.

As a health department, we are reinvigorating our efforts to be sure that all — young and old, male and female — get this prevention message. With today being recognized as World AIDS Day, now is a good time to remember that there is no cure for HIV/AIDS. The best vaccine is prevention.