AIDS is the ’forgotten epidemic’

Calling it the "forgotten epidemic," former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop urged Americans to end complacency about AIDS and put the deadly disease back on the radar screen.

Koop, the bearded physician who sounded the alarm against AIDS nearly three decades ago, joined other doctors Wednesday at a panel discussion on the epidemic, as scientists and medical professionals prepared to open a national summit on the disease.

While the number of new HIV infections has remained relatively stable, Koop says it is still far too high. An estimated 56,300 Americans become infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, each year.

"This is not the time to declare victory," said Koop, who’s 94. "The war against HIV/AIDS is far from over."

The growing sense of complacency, Koop said, is "as dangerous as the irrational fear in the early days of the AIDS controversy."