There is a patch for Conficker, but I'm sure those who are security aware or in the security industry will have read SRI's excellent analysis of all three strains of Conficker and understand that the multiple infection pathways and actions Conficker takes to prevent its removal and stop the user accessing removal-related web sites mean the patch won't install if you are infected.
If you're infected, too late to patch - use the MS removal tool THEN patch.
Decent commercial standard IDS (generally found in large corporations) have been detecting Conficker since last October based on the fact it exploits a similar vulnerability to one for which detection has been available for a year or two, so one would hope they've been taking action for a while.