If you had $50 billion to make the world a better place, how would you spend it? In answer to this hypothetical question, the Copenhagen Consensus 2006 ranked “control of HIV/AIDS” as #3 after critically analyzing the major challenges the world faces today [a]. Even in light of other major issues, such as malnutrition, hunger, and climate changes, dealing with communicable diseases takes precedence. HIV/AIDS is a big deal.
This issue is not something we can leave for the next generation to deal with. In 2005, there were an estimated 40.3 million people living with HIV/AIDS and 4.9 million new infections that year [b]. How many more million people, mostly the poorest in the world, will be infected before we find a cure? The time to act is now.
Sources:
(a) http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com
(b) http://www.who.int/en/ |
