HIV/AIDS is a horrific disease that kills 600,000 people and infects 1 million every year. But thanks to recent scientific breakthroughs, for the first time ever we can realistically hope to end it as a global threat.

Here’s what the end of AIDS will look like. The vast majority of people with HIV will get medicine that keeps them from developing AIDS—and, eventually, will be able to get a cure for the disease—and far fewer people will get the virus in the first place. By the late 2040s, we should be able to achieve a 90 percent drop in deaths and new infections compared with what they were in 2010.

The world won’t need to keep paying for treatment for tens of millions of people living with HIV. Low-income countries will be able to focus on fighting other diseases and investing in economic development. They will move faster toward self-sufficiency.

If governments recommit to the investments that have brought us this far, we can accomplish something remarkable: end a pandemic that has devastated humanity for half a century.