As the 15th International AIDS Conference, the largest yet, convenes in Bangkok this week, one of the growing concerns to be addressed is the disease's impact on the world economy.  Ninety-five percent of the 38 million people worldwide living with AIDS are in developing countries.  Doctor Ian Goldin, vice president of external affairs at the World Bank, says clearly the still-growing epidemic is more than a health problem:   

"The world's most successful developing countries have made significant economic and social progress over the past few decades, but this could be jeopardized unless we scale up efforts to help them combat the H-I-V/AIDS epidemic. In addition to the health problems the U.S. could face from the global impacts of this disease, many of these developing countries are big trading partners of the U.S., and this could have a real long-term affect on the U.S. economy as well as the global economy."
 
The World Bank has committed nearly one-point-seven billion dollars to fight AIDS in the last few years, with the U.S. being the largest donor country.

CLICK HERE to download a transcript of this story:
https://www.cpwire.com/click.asp?feature=https://216.86.33.66/aids.doc

CLICK HERE to download a multimedia (MP3) file of this story:
https://www.cpwire.com/click.asp?feature=https://216.86.33.66/aids.mp3