HIV 1998: the global picture.

TLDR: In industrialized countries the epidemic will slow for some populations yet exert an even greater toll on groups marginalized because of gender race or economic status, and the research establishment and international organizations must give highest priority to finding a vaccine against HIV and making it available to those who need it most.

Abstract: The international HIV/AIDS pandemic--in fact a composite of thousands of separate epidemics--continues its rapid expansion in developing countries. In 1997 nearly 6 million people acquired HIV and 2.3 million (including 460000 children) died from it. New HIV treatment regimens which cost more than US$10000 per person per year are inaccessible to most of those in developing countries. Even in developed countries the brunt of the epidemic has shifted to socially marginalized populations that are the least empowered to confront it effectively. A lack of access to preventive information and health and social services both places these groups at greater risk of contracting HIV and then denies them needed care and social support. Women who now account for 40% of HIV infections will continue to lack the power to insist on condom use and other safer sex practices until their social status improves. In the period ahead the AIDS epidemic is expected to become even more concentrated in the Southern Hemisphere. Explosive new epidemics will coexist with areas of lower HIV spread and HIV will enter previously unaffected areas. In industrialized countries the epidemic will slow for some populations yet exert an even greater toll on groups marginalized because of gender race or economic status. The research establishment--government and private--and international organizations must give highest priority to finding a vaccine against HIV and making it available to those who need it most.