ABSTRACT
Since the first description in the medical literature in 1981 of the syndrome later described as acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), there has been a growing awareness that it represents one of the greatest threats to public health of the late twentieth century and beyond. By 1992 the World Health Organization estimated that there had been nearly 1.5 million cases of AIDS, as well as between 9 million and 11 million cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in adults and 1 million births with HIV worldwide (WHO 1992). These figures represent just the beginning of a growing global pandemic undermining progress in mortality and morbidity levels and reflecting enormous and deepening human misery. This chapter considers, first, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, its epidemiology and regional variations; secondly, reference is made to the cultural and developmental factors which help account for the regional variations in the level and pace of HIV/AIDS transmission; and thirdly, given that there is at present no cure for AIDS, nor vaccine to combat HIV infection, reference is made to the broad lines of strategies which are being developed to prevent the transmission of HIV. The focus throughout is upon transmission rather than the impact of the epidemic and efforts to cope with it.
