CNN -- Elton John may be famous for smash hits such as "Tiny Dancer" and scores for films such as "The Lion King," but he's also made a name for himself in HIV/AIDS activism. 

Advances in treatments for HIV/AIDS have led to some people taking more risks, Elton John says. 

The singer-songwriter established the Elton John AIDS Foundation in the United States and the United Kingdom to support HIV prevention programs, efforts to eliminate stigma and discrimination associated with the disease, and care and support services for people living with the condition. The foundation has raised more than $150 million. John has said that Ryan White, an Indiana teenager who died of HIV/AIDS in 1990, inspired him to create this foundation. 

John sat down with CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta before speaking Tuesday at the Bio International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. Here is an edited transcript. 

CNN: What are you doing here today? 

Elton John: I'm doing a speech about the situation with AIDS in America basically, and how we need to address what's going on. We seem to be falling a little behind in America. 

I find this disease very cyclical. Every 10 years or so, after we spend a lot of money trying to educate people -- a new generation of people -- and we tell them to have safe sex and to abstain sometimes but have safe sex, wear condoms, we find that after 10 years another whole group of people come along. And we have to start all over again, which is really, really frustrating because it takes money for education. And we find that if we could get into the schools at a grass-roots levels, which we do in places like Africa where we get to kids at a young age and we tell them about preventive measures for not getting HIV, we find the success rate is tremendous. Watch more of Dr. Gupta's interview with Elton John » 
What exactly does it do?
 the Elton John AIDS Foundation in the United States and the United Kingdom to support HIV prevention programs, efforts to eliminate stigma and discrimination associated with the disease, and care and support services for people living with the condition.