Two decades into the global epidemic, AIDS has killed more than 22 million people worldwide. As many as 25 million Africans are infected with HIV, the AIDS virus, yet only about 10,000 can afford treatment. Some health experts call obstacles to treating such a large, desperate population insurmountable. They argue that the high cost of treatment would drain resources away from prevention. Treatment enhances prevention by providing an incentive for people to get tested and counseled.
Treatment is necessary for economic development.
Without treatment, productive people will die, leaving crucial jobs unfilled. In Zambia, teachers are dying of AIDS as quickly as they're trained. The major challenge, they say, is to build a health care network to serve some of the world's poorest countries.