"We have now a wide array of tools to help prevent HIV," Sherer have told Xinhua in an exclusive interview before World AIDS Day, noting that since 1999 new HIV cases worldwide had decreased by 19 percent with some of the most important successes occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa.

First starting to treat HIV/AIDS patients in 1982, Sherer has been familiar with the disease since the beginning, and now serves as Director of the International AIDS Training Center at the University of Chicago. Above all, he believes that eliminating new AIDS cases in the future requires a multifaceted strategy.

"The best way to prevent HIV is using combination prevention - you can't use just one strategy, but there are many that work," Sherer advised, explaining that the best prevention method is one that embraces both practical knowledge and increasing the availability of the biomedical treatment already in place.

Sherer also added that there were still another 10 million people that qualified for antiretroviral therapy and weren't getting it, and focus should be on expanding treatment for them.

Moreover, according to Sherer, treatment itself is now a highly effective prevention tool.

In a recent clinical trial of discordant couples - where one individual was HIV positive and their partner was not - there was a 96 percent reduction in the transmission of HIV in patients with T cells between 350 and 550.

Along with this medical example Sherer also cited basic prevention methods that could be used, such as how circumcision reduced a man's chances of acquiring HIV by two-thirds and that condoms was also more than 95 percent effective in preventing the virus.

"People with HIV can now live normal, productive lives - the life expectancy is 60 or 70 years, just like a person our age with diabetes, and that's a stunning accomplishment to note for World AIDS day," Sherer concluded positively.