ON THE plus side, drug treatment for HIV is being refined, AIDS-related
deaths in Britain and the US are falling, and a few months ago doctors started
clinical tests of the much-vaunted Oxford/Nairobi HIV vaccine. So why does so
much gloom still surround HIV? In a nutshell, the worst-affected countries
can’t afford the drugs—and the vaccine is unlikely to work.
In the hardest-hit countries, infection rates have hit catastrophic levels.
In sub-Saharan Africa an estimated 3.8 million people contracted the virus in
2000, bringing the total to more than 25 million.
In South Africa alone, the UN’s joint programme…
