Luc Montagnier -- who shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine for his work in the discovery of HIV -- on Monday during a speech in Canada said that the rush to develop an HIV/AIDS vaccine or cure should not deemphasize the importance of prevention, the CP/Google.com reports. According to Montagnier, hopes for a vaccine or cure might be contributing to the spread of HIV by making people complacent about prevention. "It seems that the young generation has forgotten about prevention, because they think there are cures for HIV, that it's no big deal," Montagnier said.

Montagnier also refuted the belief that modern medicine has made HIV/AIDS a controllable, chronic condition, according to the CP/Google.com. "In the long-term they may die not of AIDS but of a side effect: cardiovascular, obesity and hypertension, brain disease," he said, adding that HIV/AIDS is "still a very important disease, and it's not a chronic disease…