Beijing seems to view it more as a public-relations problem than a human one. Politicians suppress reports on entire villages decimated by HIV-AIDS. They also worry that if victims spoke freely they would criticize Beijing's slow response to the pandemic. Widespread discrimination discourages many Chinese from even getting tested.
In the first half of 2001, China experienced a 67 percent increase in the number of infections. The risk here is a repeat of the US government's delay in tackling HIV-AIDS in the 1980s.
Ignorance and prejudice -- many dismissed it as a gay disease and therefore felt it wasn't their concern -- kept Washington from acting. Hopefully, Beijing will learn from that mistake.
It's vital China and other Asian nations do more, and fast.
Epidemics don't respect national borders and immigration controls.
By attacking people in their most productive years, HIV-AIDS is a huge -- and fast-growing -- strain on prosperity. Take Africa's experience. In many of its nations, HIV-AIDS is drastically reducing average life expectancy and income prospects. Entire generations are being decimated.
Asia needs to avoid this fate. "What's most worrying is that in some of the world's most populous nations -- China, India, Indonesia -- there is a serious threat of the epidemic becoming more general," Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, recently told an audience in Moscow.
Caring for the sick, dying and orphaned strains state budgets, adds to poverty, reduces labor forces and boosts crime.
Social and economic unrest can devolve into violence and civil wars, into which allies and neighbors can be drawn. This can have implications for markets, as evidenced by South Africa's currency woes over the past year. If such instability travels to more pivotal markets, more investors will feel the effects.
Anyone who doubts AIDS is an economic and financial-market story might want to think again. If investing is about finding hidden values and emerging growth opportunities, then HIV-AIDS would seem to be its antithesis. Take China, which is enjoying a huge inflow of international capital as its economy grows. What if rising HIV-AIDS rates give investors reason for pause? All this explains why slowing the spread in Asia is a major goal of international health organizations. Infection rates are rising rapidly in India. Cases also are rising in Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand. For officials in Bangkok, HIV-AIDS already is a huge issue; it's one of the leading causes of death in Thailand.
Given its massive population and its economy's importance in Asia, China is naturally in the hot seat. Now that things are heating up, let's hope Beijing gets serious about HIV-AIDS.
RSS