ABSTRACT
Although the HIV/AIDS epidemic first came to the attention of the public and the medical community in the United States and, shortly afterward, in other developed countries, the most hard-hit regions of the world have been the impoverished countries. Sub-Saharan Africa was quickly recognized as the focal point and likely origin of the epidemic and still accounts for approximately two-thirds of estimated cases (1). Some countries of the Caribbean basin were almost equally affected at first. In the decades since, poor- and middle-income countries of Southeast Asia, the horn of Africa, and, most recently, India, China, Russia, and other countries of the former Soviet Union both in eastern Europe and in central Asia have seen the rapid emergence of HIV/AIDS as a public health calamity.
