HIV is an epidemic for which there is still no cure today, however knowledge about the disease is much more extensive than what was known thirty years ago. Today there is much more knowledge regarding prevention, diagnosis and medical management. Nearly 50,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and this number has remained stable over the past decade. In 1986, a study was conducted on 375 gay men in San Francisco by Dr. Sol Silverman and the clinical results were recorded. Due to the wealth of knowledge about the disease, which was then unknown, numerous differences exist in the epidemiology of the disease. The percentage of gay men and women represents a much smaller number than when the study was initially conducted. However, the disease still disproportionately affects non-whites and Hispanics, who make up 62% of men and 82% of women. One of the main reasons for the high transmission of HIV is due to the fact that most people do not know that they carry the disease. In fact, almost half of HIV transmission is due to these people (Abel et al, 2013). Furthermore, HIV research has led to a wealth of knowledge regarding the treatment of the disease. In the mid-1980s there was no known treatment, whereas today there are over 30 agents. The most effective of these is combination therapy, which is far superior to individual therapy in “achieving complete suppression of HIV replication, duration of response to treatment, prevention of the development of resistance to HIV drugs HIV and the reduction of HIV- and non-HIV-associated morbidity and mortality”. " (Abel et al, 2013). The therapy has had such positive results that recent data have shown that HIV-infected people who have an undetectable viral load during therapy and reach and... middle of paper.. . DS, which accounted for one-third of all general treatment refusal policies. Additionally, 90% of dentists who had discriminatory responses graduated before 1988. There were only two dentists who graduated after this date who said that. would have refused treatment to HIV patients. Dentists have a legal and moral obligation to accept HIV/AIDS patients into their practice. Not only can dentists help identify signs of HIV infection earlier Signs of the disease appear as oral lesions, but it is illegal to refuse treatment to these patients. Only if the patient's treatment poses a direct threat to the provider or other patients can treatment be refused. This is not the case for HIV/AIDS patients. The ADA has regulations to protect such patients in the Ethical Principles and Code of Professional Conduct, and dentists must adhere to these standards.