This TED Talk features molecular epidemiologist and activist Ed Sol Solvana, recorded live at TED Global 2017.

The Philippines, an idyllic country with some of the clearest water and bluest skies on the planet.

It is also the epicenter of one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemics in the world.

On the surface, it seems as if we are just a late bloomer.

However, the reasons for our current epidemic are much more complicated

and may foreshadow a global resurgence of HIV.

While overall new cases of HIV continue to drop in the world, this trend may be short-lived

with the next wave of more aggressive and resistant viruses arrive. HIV has a potential to transform

itself into a new and different virus every time it infects a cell. Despite the remarkable progress we've made in reversing the epidemic,

the truth is that we are just a few viral mutations away from disaster.

To appreciate the profound way in which HIV transforms itself

every time it reproduces, let's make a genetic comparison.

If we look at the DNA variation among humans of different races from different continents,

the actual DNA difference is only 0.1%.

If we look at the genetic difference between humans, great apes, and greasusus m macacs, that number is 7%. In contrast, the genetic

difference between HIV subtypes from different patients may be as much as 35%. Within a person

infected with HIV, the genetic difference between an infecting mother virus and subsequent

daughter viruses has been shown to be as much as 5%. This is the equivalent of a gorilla giving birth to a

chimpanzee, then to a orangutan, then to a baboon, then to any random grade tape within its lifetime.

There are nearly 100 subtypes of HIV, with new subtypes being discovered regularly.

HIV in the developed world is almost all of one subtype, subtype B.

Mostly everything we know and do to treat HIV is based on studies on subtype B,

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