AS DELEGATES met at the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, the prospects for bringing HIV under control looked bleak. The numbers of people infected or likely to become so in the near future are horrendous, as are the sums of money that will be needed to treat them. Most worrying is the lack of global leadership. Many wealthy nations are failing to keep their promises on funding, and this can only lead to deeper trouble.
Some 38 million people are infected with HIV, of whom 4.8 million caught the virus last year. About two-thirds of all HIV-positive people live…
