MADRAS, India -- With still no vaccine or cure two decades after the first cases of the disease were reported/detected, AIDS is undoubtedly a terrible threat facing mankind.
"Cocktail" drugs prolong life and sometimes improve it, but treatment continues to be expensive, with rich countries hesitant to invest adequate resources to halt the scourge. The United States only sent 50 people to last week's international conference on AIDS in Bangkok, far less than the 236 who attended the international AIDS conference in Barcelona two years ago.
As a developing nation, India is struggling to cope with the plague. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton once said that AIDS "will slice the nation like a hot knife through butter." India's development could be affected, although U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan told the Bangkok delegates that "India and China may not see that much economic damage because of the vastness of their populations."