AIDS, until recently considered a problem of poor African and affluent Western societies, is very much a South Asian problem. As the epidemic engulfs the backwaters of Asia, health workers will be unable to cope with persons requiring specialised and complex care. In India, AIDS has brought not only fear of the disease, but also confusion and dissatisfaction about how the epidemic is being handled. Nepal does not have a foot in the right direction, either. Meanwhile a potential disaster is in the making as Nepali women carrying the AIDS virus return home from the brothels of Bombay.
Since the first cases of AIDS were reported in 1981, health professionals have been increasingly concerned about the unprecedented dangers this disease poses. But many people have tuned out, deluged by sensational coverage of the disease in the media. This is unfortunate, because AIDS still has the potential of overrunning all of the Third World.
In African countries the prevalence of AIDS is nothing less than tragic. Other Third World countries would be living in a fool's paradise if they thought they could escape the grasp of AIDS. As no cure is available and people lack the knowledge of how the disease is spread or how it can be prevented, AIDS will not bypass any region. It is therefore urgent to put public information campaigns into high gear and prepare public health institutions to tackle the most dreaded disease of modern times.
India, with its large and proficient medical profession and public health administration, has a mixed record in confronting AIDS. There have been glaring instances of AIDS patients being mistreated. But at least some treatment facilities exist in the Indian metropolitan centres.