From the UK but can be applied to the US:

1 Aids is curable and therefore no longer a serious threat.

This is one of the most pernicious myths – and widely shared among young people. Almost a third of 18- to 24-year-olds think there is a cure for HIV, according to a survey by the Aids charity the Terrence Higgins Trust. Great progress has been made in developing drug cocktails that can curb the virus and hold the disease in check and many Aids sufferers can now look forward to a normal lifespan, if they live in the West and have access to the drugs. But the drugs are powerful, have nasty side-effects, must be taken for life and there is the risk of resistance. People can now live with Aids, as with a chronic disease, but they cannot be cured of it.

2 Aids is receding in the UK.

The number of people living with HIV in the UK rose by 20 per cent last year to 49,500. So far 15,000 people have died from Aids. The epidemic is accelerating, not declining here. There were 5,711 new diagnoses of HIV to the end of September last year, the highest since records began in 1987. The number of new cases was 15 per cent up on the 4,982 diagnosed in 2001 and is expected to rise to 6,400 when all the reports are received. The rate of infection has more than doubled since 1997.

3 Aids is easy to avoid.

It is if you know your partner’s sexual history. But there are an estimated 16,000 people in the UK with HIV, one third of the total infected by the virus, who do not know they are infected (as revealed by anonymous testing of blood taken in hospitals for other reasons). They pose the biggest threat of passing the virus on.

4 Aids is a gay disease in the UK.

No. Heterosexually acquired cases of HIV outnumber homosexually/bisexually acquired cases by two to one. In 2002 there were 3,305 new cases of heterosexual HIV and 1,691 cases of homosexual/ bisexual. The nature of the epidemic has been transformed in the UK since the early 1990s, when homosexual/bisexual cases outnumbered heterosexual cases. Most heterosexual cases are imported, mainly from Africa, while most homosexual cases are contracted in the UK. Among gay men with HIV, 88 per cent are white and the remainder black or Asian. Among heterosexuals with HIV, 21 per cent are white and the rest black or Asian.

5 There is a low risk of catching HIV/Aids in the UK.

It depends. Heterosexual transmission remains low, despite the larger number of HIV-infected heterosexuals entering the country. But for gays the risks are higher. There were 1,850 cases of HIV diagnosed during 2002 that were acquired in the UK. Around 1,500 – 80 per cent – were among gay and bisexual men and 275 among heterosexuals. HIV is more readily transmitted between gays, because anal sex carries a higher risk of minor rupture of tissues which facilitates infection.

6 Aids can be simply prevented by telling people to use condoms and practice safe sex.

It could be if people followed advice – but they don’t. Complacency about the risks has led to an explosion in all sexually transmitted infections since the mid-1990s which shows no sign of slowing. Cases of chlamydia were up 14 per cent last year, gonorrhea up 9 per cent and syphilis up 68 per cent. Women are more vulnerable to being infected and two thirds of the cases were among young females aged 16 to 24.

7 Aids can be caught by kissing.

One in four young people think kissing can transmit the virus and one in 10 thinks it can be caught from toilet seats. It can’t. Such mistaken beliefs fuel discrimination against those infected and increase the stigma of the disease which conspire to keep it secret.

8 Aids has passed its peak.

It is true that in the worst-affected part of the world – sub-Saharan Africa – the prevalence of the disease has remained relatively steady. But that is because the numbers dying have risen to equal the numbers becoming newly infected. The epidemic has reached its natural limit. Moreover, in other parts of the world such as Asia and China the epidemic is just beginning.

9 Aids is God’s wrath on a promiscuous world.

This was a view peddled by fire and brimstone moralists in the mid-1980s during the early years of the epidemic who believed the lethal disease had been visited on mankind as retribution for our sinful lifestyle. But this theory failed to explain why, in addition to homosexuals, regarded as morally beyond the pale, it also affected Haitians and hemophiliacs.

10 Aids is not caused by HIV.

In the early 1990s, doubts were raised about the cause of Aids because the HIV virus could not be isolated from every case. Professor Peter Duisberg led the skeptics who claimed something else was damaging the immune systems of those who succumbed to it – such as drug abuse. The theory fuelled the moralists’ outrage (see No 9) and has been the chief resort of those who, like Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa, prefer to ignore what the disease is doing to their countries. Mr Mbeki has long insisted that Aids is a not a problem in South Africa and recently denied knowing anyone who had died from Aids. His refusal to acknowledge the devastation the disease has caused was an important factor in denying the South African people access to antiretroviral drugs. This decision was reversed by the South African cabinet last week.

11 Aids cannot be stopped.

It can and it has been in some parts of the world. In Kampala, Uganda the number of adults infected fell to 8 per cent last year, compared with a rate of 30 per cent a decade ago. The disease has been receding continuously in Uganda for 12 years thanks to a vigorous campaign. Uganda was one of the first places to be hit by the epidemic and it is thought that as young people witnessed parents and older siblings dying they changed their sexual behaviour.

12 The world has finally woken up to the threat posed by Aids.

Partly true. The global funds allocated to HIV rose 50 per cent last year to $4.7bn (£2.7bn), and not all of it came from rich countries. Developing countries now recognize they must devote significant sums to Aids because of the threat to their economies. Political commitment has also grown stronger: witness the joint meeting on Aids hosted by Tony Blair and George Bush during the recent state visit. But the most dangerous myth of all is that enough is being done. The scale of the global epidemic dwarfs the efforts being made to combat it. Tomorrow, Hilary Benn, minister for International Development, will announce extra Aids funding and call on the international community to increase its efforts against the disease.