INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE AIDS HIV EPIDEMIC

This review provides the reader with pertinent information on the epid emiology, prevention, and new technologies of the ongoing HIV pandemic . These aspects are key to international policy discussions surroundin g the public health response to the international spread of HIV. Our u nderstanding of the impact of AIDS on other diseases is evolving, as i s our insight into the demographic and economic effects of the epidemi c on the global community. Observations on the success of certain prev ention strategies allow rational allocation of resources in newly affe cted epidemic areas. Information on the origin and nature of HIV trans mission exemplifies the phenomenon of global emerging infections. As w orld populations are brought closer together through transportation, c ommunication, trade, and commerce, insight into emerging infections of epidemic potential becomes increasingly important to the practitioner of public health. Although important, legal and social aspects of the epidemic will not be emphasized here. The epidemics of HIV/AIDS in th e United States and Europe are not reviewed here. The global pandemic has recently been described in an overview in this publication to whic h the reader is also referred (15).