I refuse to put on the tin foil hat
AIDS in India, China and Russia Nears 'Tipping Point,' U.N. Says
By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 1, 2004; Page A17
The head of the United Nations' AIDS program warned yesterday that India, China and Russia are "perilously close to a tipping point" that could turn their small, localized AIDS epidemics into gigantic ones capable of disrupting the world's response to the disease.
The situation in those three countries "bears alarming similarities to the situation we faced 20 years ago in Africa," Peter Piot, a Belgian physician and epidemiologist, told policymakers in Washington. It could transform "from a series of concentrated outbreaks and hot spots into a generalized explosion across the entire population -- spreading like a wildfire from there."
If that happens, affecting both the global economy and international security, "no country on Earth will escape the impact," said Piot, who heads UNAIDS, a program run by U.N. agencies, the World Bank and the World Health Organization.
