HIV is, by definition, a virus. To this layman, it looks like medical science has made some real strides in the battle against viruses during my lifetime. Polio and influenza vaccines have literally changed the world from the way it was in my childhood. Virus research may provide the solution to HIV. Unfortunately vaccines do nothing for people already infected, but they do a hell of a good job for everyone else. As bittersweet a victory as that is, it wipes out an epidemic of frightening scope in a single generation.
Not that I've given up hope on finding a cure for HIV, or herpes, or cancer, or any other virus infection. As the 18th was the Century of Mathematics, the 19th was the Century of Chemistry, and the 20th was the Century of Physics, the 21st may shape up to be the Century of Medicine. Still, a reasonable prediction is that we'll develop vaccines to protect our grandchildren from contracting those diseases before we develop medications to cure our children who already have them.
Other than that, I don't see any non-medical vectors for dealing with this problem. Sexual behavior is too primal a drive in our species -- as it is with most mammals -- to be modified by outright fear, much less education or legislation. An illness that is as contagious as HIV, that is spread by sexual intercourse, that can be passed from one partner to another for months or even years before the symptoms are evident, and that can't be cured, is an epidemiologist's worst nightmare.
All I can say is that this is one of those news items that makes me glad for a moment to be an old man in a monogamous relationship. To be young and horny and looking for someone to share those traits with was a recipe for frequent disaster forty years ago simply because of the emotional issues and the threat of venereal diseases that seem positively tame today. Today it looks more like Russian roulette with at least two bullets in the cylinder.
Getting a blood test, choosing your partner wisely, using condoms, these are all risk-reducing strategies from a public health perspective, but not reliable enough to be very reassuring at the individual level. Preaching abstinence to adolescents is about as futile as telling a dog to stop eating stool: it's an instinct, stupid! And the whole condom strategy rules out oral sex, which is going to leave a huge segment of the female population pretty unsatisfied.
I don't believe things are going to get better until we finally develop a reliable vaccine, and do a far better job of distributing it in the Third World than we usually do with food and other aid.
Until then, try monogamy. Even if you screw up and pick the wrong partner, it's still a hell of a lot better than abstinence