AIDS--the second decade: a global perspective.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS epidemic merits its designation as a pandemic: AIDS cases are reported to the World Health Organization from 163 countries, and at least 10 million adults have been infected with HIV. The pandemic is a relatively new phenomenon, and therefore it remains dynamic, unstable, and volatile. Transmission continues in all already-affected countries; HIV is spreading, sometimes quite rapidly, to previously unaffected or little-affected areas of the world; and the epidemic becomes more complex and differentiated. The major impact of the pandemic is yet to come: In the 1990s, a 10-fold increase is anticipated in the numbers of adults (to 10 million) and children (to 5 million) developing AIDS. The social, cultural, economic, and political impacts of the pandemic are also increasing. The community, national, and international approach to control of the pandemic must continue to evolve, taking into account the specific conditions of the modern world, of which the global interdependence of health has become the major new factor.