In view of the extraordinary persistence of AIDS, the medical world began to wake up to the fact that viral diseases were staging a major counteroffensive. In 1995 the WHO warned that there was a trend of new strains of bacteria and viruses that were rapidly mutating into new infectious diseases as well as re-emerging infectious diseases that had long been eradicated or brought under control.
也由於愛滋病如此頑強，讓醫學界開始驚覺各種傳染病的大舉反撲現象，世界衛生組織於是在一九九五年提出警訊：不管是因細菌及病毒突變產生新種而引發的「新興感染症」，還是一度消失或減少的古老疫疾捲土重來、形成所謂的「再浮現感染症」，兩者增加的趨勢都是明顯而快速的。