Asia's Economies and the Challenge of AIDS

Over the last few decades, the eyes of much of the world have turned toward Asia and the Pacific. In many countries in the region, economic growth has taken off, poverty has decreased, and people are better educated and healthier than ever before. Not all of Asia has participated equally in these wide-ranging social and economic changes, but much of the region is moving ahead.

Despite this picture of promise, however, HIV/AIDS poses a threat that cannot be ignored. In Asia and the Pacific, as in the rest of the world, the number of those infected with HIV is increasing rapidly, as is the number of people in whom the infection has progressed to the disease of AIDS.

Treating AIDS is expensive, but not treating it—allowing it to spread even faster – may be even more so. In this way, too, the countries of Asia face an enormous challenge.