Current Economic Assessments of HIV/AIDS Impact on World Economy Incomplete, Report Says

Current assessments of how HIV/AIDS affects the world economy are incomplete, according to a report released on Tuesday by TD Economics, a financial analysis group, Canada's National Post reports (Mavin, National Post, 8/9). According to the report, a broad, long-term analysis of the disease's impact should include losses in labor forces and human capital, breakdowns in family transfers of knowledge and values, the cost of providing care for HIV-positive people and government finances (TD release, 8/8). Previous estimates of how HIV/AIDS affects the global economy fail to capture the fact that "most of the people being affected are younger than 30 and in their prime working years," Don Drummond, senior vice president and chief economist of TD Bank Financial Group, said, adding, "Humanitarian causes should be enough of a rationale for action to fight AIDS, but they haven't been in this case." Five percent to 10% of the work force in sub-Saharan Africa has died of AIDS-related illnesses, and that figure is expected to increase in the next 15 years to 25%, Toronto's Globe and Mail reports (Gandhi, Globe and Mail, 8/9). The report presents an international action plan designed to reduce the economic costs associated with HIV/AIDS. The action plan recommends that increased financing and distribution of antiretroviral drugs be made available; wealthy nations focus HIV/AIDS efforts towards marginalized populations; developed countries reassess future costs of HIV/AIDS to developed nations; stakeholders increase cooperation; less developed countries reassess their national priorities and increase access to education; developing countries address national security allow military expenditures to be shifted to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment expenditures; and corruption in developing nations be addressed (TD release, 8/8).