The effects of AIDS and HIV in the world

Essay by sandeepk316College, UndergraduateA-, April 2003

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With reference to one animal or human disease, explain why its economic consequences vary spatially.

Abstract

The AIDS epidemic claimed more than 3 million lives in 2002,and an estimated 5 million people acquired the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 2002 - bringing to 42 million the number of people globally living with the virus.

As the world enters the third decade of the AIDS epidemic, the evidence of its impact is undeniable. Wherever the epidemic has spread unchecked, it is robbing countries of the resources and capacities on which human security and development depend. In some regions, HIV/AIDS, in combination with other crises, is driving ever-larger parts of nations towards destitution. The world stood by as HIV/AIDS swept through these countries. It cannot be allowed to turn a blind eye to an epidemic that continues to expand in some of the most populous regions and countries of the world.

"HIV is continuing to spread and is taking a terrible toll. In many hard-hit countries, HIV has already reduced life expectancy by more than a decade." HIV moves through populations in a series of overlapping epidemics, once the virus has spread widely among people with very risky behaviour, preventing its spread to others becomes increasingly difficult."

Introduction

When AIDS first emerged as a disease over twenty years ago, few people could have predicted how the epidemic would evolve, and fewer still could have described with any certainty the best ways of combating it. Now, in the year 2002, it is known from experience that AIDS can devastate whole regions, knock decades off national development, widen the gap between rich and poor nations and push already-stigmatised groups closer to the margins of society.

This report examines how of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and human immunodeficiency virus hinder the economic development...