Styx bass player Chuck Panozzo continues support for HIV fight

After spending the majority of his adult life on the road with his band Styx, Chuck Panozzo is using his rock n' roll celebrity status to raise HIV prevention awareness. Since testing positive for the sexually transmitted disease (STD) in 1991, Panozzo has partnered with various campaigns to help emphasize the importance of developing vaccinations for HIV and AIDS.

Currently, he has been supporting the advancements made by GeoVax Labs, an Atlanta-based biotechnology company. The firm recently completed the first phase and has begun Phase IIa of its clinical trials on a potential vaccine for HIV-positive patients.

Panozzo stated that "a lot of people think HIV is a death sentence, but not anymore." He added that "the hope [is for] a vaccine that can be taken once a year at much less cost than current treatments allow, and one that can be made readily available to patients around the world."

In 2006, approximately 1.1 million people in the U.S. had either diagnosed or undiagnosed cases of HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Furthermore, more than 42,000 new cases were diagnosed in 2007.