And finally, because the opportunistic infections that accompany AIDS are so very expensive to treat. The rest of the world cannot afford to ignore Africa's problem, Bloom warned. In a global economy, none of us are insulated. In sub-Sahara Africa whole generations are basically disappearing. That is going to give rise to substantial disruptions in social interactions and economic structures.
Societies can only deal with a certain amount of disruption before they collapse.
AIDS is going to change the course of human evolution. There's no doubt about that. When you have a disease that affects so many people and some people have systems better able to respond to it, that's how evolution works. It is so enormous that even for someone like myself who's been involved in it for 17 years, it is impossible for me to truly conceive of the magnitude of the epidemic.