It is in developing countries that the consequences of HIV/AIDS are the most serious, not just because of the greater prevalence of the disease there and its presence in a broad spectrum of the population, but because in the West highly effective drug therapy is now available to hold in check the progress of the disease within individual sufferers.

In developing countries, the situation is very different. Not only do the individuals who contract the disease face debility and death, but their families face the loss of important income earners, their spouses face the burden of caring for them and are themselves at increased risk of contracting the disease or of premature widowhood, their children are at risk of becoming orphans with the attendant dangers that orphanhood brings, and the elderly are at risk of losing the financial support of their adult children and of gaining instead the burden of orphans to care for.

Even within sub-Saharan Africa, which is the most seriously affected region in the world, there is considerable variation between countries. In some countries, such as Botswana, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has reversed the hard-won mortality gains of preceding decades. In others, such as Uganda, the epidemic appears to be being brought under control. In others, such as South Africa, the epidemic hit only recently and has travelled fast. Everywhere, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is placing additional strains on already over-stretched health systems. By cutting a swathe through cohorts of young adults, the epidemic is depleting the most active portion of the labour force and, often, the best-educated portion as well.

Attention has tended to focus within the developing world on sub-Saharan Africa and Thailand, but the HIV/AIDS epidemic is by no means confined to these regions. Possible epicentres of present and future infection include other parts of Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Far East and Eastern Europe.

This session seeks contributions on the consequence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Contributors may take a global, regional, national or sub-national geographic perspective, may focus on the consequence of the epidemic either for individuals and families or for wider communities, and may adopt a data-based, a model-based or a theoretical approach.