Durban was a hive of activity this week as thousands of delegates and scores of celebrities, business luminaries and politicians gathered in the city for the 21st International Aids Conference.

The gathering marked the return to the city of a conference first held there in 2000, under very different circumstances.Back then, South Africa's fight against HIV/Aids was in the news for all the wrong reasons. Its health minister and president were reluctant to roll out antiretroviral drugs and even refused to accept that HIV causes Aids.Instead of the government, it was Nkosi Johnson - a frail boy living with the virus - who led the fight against the pandemic.It is now a matter of record that many lives were lost because of the government's dithering.Thankfully, this year's conference took place under remarkably changed conditions. South Africa today has one of the best state-run HIV treatment programmes.The age of denialism is finally behind us and public education about the virus has resulted in the removal or at least weakening of the stigma that many communities tended to associate with it 16 years ago.The rate of mother-to-child transmission of the virus in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa has substantially decreased and life expectancy has increased, due mainly to life-saving drugs being made available to those who need them.As a result of this progress, this year's conference was not the site of the sort of confrontation and protest that overshadowed proceedings in 2000.Much of the focus among the delegates was on new ways to stop the spread of HIV and treat those already infected.Over the five days of the conference, there were about 500 sessions dealing with the 2500 scientific papers that had been submitted for the conference. Delegates left the gathering confident that scientists are getting nearer to finding a cure.But even with all the progress made, we should not lose sight of the fact that still too many people die of Aids unnecessarily, and that the rate of new infections remains high, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.According to reports presented at the conference, more than a million people die of Aids every year around the world.The reports also indicate that most of the new infections are of girls.In our country, where sexually exploitative practices such as the "blesser" phenomenon and "sugar daddies" - both of which involve older men enticing young women with money in return for sexual favours - are prevalent, the struggle against the spread of HIV/Aids is not an easy one.If South Africa is to succeed in defeating the scourge, we should continue to combine the search for scientific solutions with campaigns to minimise risk by encouraging a change in people's behaviour.Most of the awareness campaigns over the years have focused on women and children, with little being done to encourage men to act responsibly.In the run-up to this year's conference, we have seen an increase in the number of local campaigns aimed at men.This should not stop now that the conference is over. Preventing the spread of the virus is the responsibility of all of us, men and women...