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By Imogen Foulkes
In Geneva
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Five million people are infected with Aids annually
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The long-term economic and social cost of Aids has been seriously under-estimated, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The WHO's recently-published World Health Report says some African countries could face economic collapse unless the Aids pandemic is controlled.
The report, 'Changing History', says much can be done to fight the disease.
It is the first time the publication has been devoted entirely to HIV, which has killed more than 20 million people.
Optimistic note
The figures in the World Health Report are catastrophic.
Aids is the leading cause of death worldwide among 15 to 59-year-olds.
Each year, five million new people become infected with the HIV virus.
In sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 25% of children will be Aids orphans by the year 2010.
Yet, the report contains a note of optimism - saying there is a chance now to really tackle the disease.
Doctor Peter Piot, head of the United Nations Aids Programme, says the reason is simple.
"For the first time in the history of this epidemic, there is serious money on the table," he says.
"We've moved from $200m going to Aids in developing countries when UNAids was founded about seven years ago to $4.5bn dollars last year ..."
Treatments
The WHO and UNAids say treatment is what the money must be spent on.
In the United States and Europe, people with Aids are leading normal productive lives, thanks to anti-retroviral drugs.
In developing countries, an estimated six million people need those drugs. Only 400,000 are getting them, and Peter Piot says, a vaccine is still a long way off.
"There is not much optimism that we will have a vaccine in the next five years, so the only vaccine we have today is education, is the condom, is abstinence, fidelity. That is the only vaccine we have," he said.
But those things are dependent on human behaviour, and health professionals know that is not easy to change.
So the battle against Aids must focus on treatment and international support for countries with high rates of infection.
If the opportunity to act now is not seized, the WHO warns, some countries will lose so many people that they will face economic and social collapse.