Businesses are going bankrupt because of the deaths of skilled, educated staff members, according to the report. Hopes of better education are also in tatters. Children are leaving school because they are orphaned or forced to work to support their families. Hospitals are overwhelmed by AIDS patients. Many have inadequate supplies of even basic antibiotics to fight the pneumonia , tuberculosis or mouth fungus that accompany AIDS, let alone the sophisticated drugs which have eased suffering in rich countries, the report said.
Denial continues to be a problem.
Most thought witchcraft or a curse was to blame. Piot said one of the reasons for the explosion of cases in southern Africa is the legacy of apartheid, which separated men from their families in rural areas and forced them to work in towns, with only prostitutes for relief. But he said governments were also to blame for ignoring the problem for too long. I'm thinking of Asia, I'm thinking of eastern Europe, I'm thinking of the Caribbean. He called for debt-relief programs for poor countries.