The federal government is about to make changes in how it approaches the AIDS crisis, shifting its focus from prevention to containment.

Monday the Center for Disease Control released new data showing HIV-infection rates are rising again after years of decreasing. We believe the new policy correctly shifts the focus to the most dangerous facet of this deadly disease, but there is a risk in easing up on successful prevention strategies.

Under the new policy, the bulk of federal grants from the CDC will go to programs that treat and teach already-infected people how to live with the disease and not spread it. Programs that concentrate on preventing spread of the disease among healthy people will have to expand to include containment education among infected people, or risk a loss of future funding.

The CDC makes a compelling case when it says it's time to try another strategy.

Consider: the United States saw its first increase in AIDS cases in nearly a decade last year - up 2.2 percent in 2002, with even higher increases among gay men. The CDC also estimates that one out of four people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, don't know they're infected.

Harold Jaffe, head of the CDC's sexually transmitted diseases division, says many at-risk groups, especially gay men, developed a sense of complacency as treatment became more sophisticated.

The new guidelines will force organizations to address these trends by spreading the word on the importance of regular testing. Also important to convey to HIV-positive people is the fact that AIDS, despite scientific advances, is still ultimately fatal and easily spread through unprotected sex.

With treatment, HIV patients typically live more than a decade without symptoms, with the opportunity to infect many others in that time. That's why it's so critical for at-risk people to know about testing and early treatment.

It's no longer enough to tell people how not to contract HIV. We need to start focusing on what people can do once they have it.