Essay

In the quarter-century since it has surfaced, AIDS has become a global plague, killing 33M people in the world. Sub-Saharan Africa is suffering a lot from the epidemic, both physically and economically In the 80s: first AIDS cases were diagnosed
25M deaths
UN report in 2005 shows limited progress made against the disease.
Politics continue to get in the way. Some 40m people are living with HIV, most of them are unaware of this fact.

$8 billion spent in developing countries fighting the disease in 2005
Inv in other areas the fight continues to fall short:

- Poor and countries lack infrastructure to deliver materials for prevention and treatment to rural areas; Women condition … 1.3m infected people in poor countries now get the drugs: anti-retroviral, that help fend off the symptoms of AIDS and prolong life. Africa is still the continent that suffers the most: Kenya, Zimbabwe: infection rates fall whereas S.A and Botswana sky-high rates continue. In Asia, Thailand and Cambodia have kept infection rates low.

Heavily-populated India is flailing. A tenth of those infected get treatment: 5.7m people with HIV

Rapid explosion of HIV in India and China has not happened as once predicted.
-- China’s « Four frees and one Care » programme: offering anti-retroviral drugs, voluntary counselling and testing, drugs to prevent mothers passing HIV to their children, schooling for AIDS orphans, care for affected households: possible model for other countries.

- In richer countries the people who pass on the virus that causes AIDS are often those whom governments would like to ignore: Prostitutes, those who inject drugs, homosexuals -- Muslim and Catholic countries, in particular, frown on prostitution and homosexuality. HIV: associated with behaviours many consider shameful, people are afraid to get tested, and are often shunned after a positive diagnosis. Georges Bush: increased funding for the global fight against AIDS, from $840m in 2001 to $2.8