Spending on Global AIDS Necessary to Reduce Long-Term Costs, New York Times Editorial States
The $5 billion per year increase in global AIDS spending recommended last week by U.N. researchers in order to reduce by more than 60% the projected 45 million new infections by 2010 "is a lot of money," but it is "dwarfed by the costs of not spending it," a New York Times editorial today states. "[I]t is increasingly clear," the Times states, "that the cost of AIDS rises with each minute that the epidemic grows." According to the Times, a number of measures are needed to slow the spread of the disease, including "strong political leadership," training peer educators from high-risk groups and combining "mass media messages on AIDS with programs for specific groups." The editorial concludes, "Few governments today fail to acknowledge the urgency of preventing AIDS, but their recognition of the catastrophe helps little if they cannot get the money to save their nations from being engulfed by the disease" (New York Times, 7/8).
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