Ahead of the 14th International AIDS Conference, a number of reports were released by various organizations suggesting that AIDS prevention programs could greatly diminish the number of people infected with HIV and at a relatively low cost.
One such report, published in The Lancet, analyzed the results of 86 studies of AIDS prevention programs in over 126 countries. The report estimated that intensive prevention programs could prevent as many as 29 million new AIDS cases by 2010. The total cost of such a program is estimated at about $10 billion.
Another report, from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, identified measures that such an initiative would need to focus on, including improving the status of women in the developing wold; additional usage of drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV; education programs about how AIDS is spread and other measures.
Dr. Peter Piot, of the United Nations AIDS program, told The New York Times that in many developing countries people are still often unaware of how AIDS is spread.
Source:
Modest anti-AIDS efforts offer huge payoff, studies say. Lawrence K. Altman, The New York Times, July 5, 2002.