A recent study showing a “near-perfect way to halt sexual transmission of the AIDS virus has the potential to change the way international agencies and nations cope with the epidemic. But that can only happen if troubling issues of cost and practicality can be surmounted,” a New York Times editorial says. 

“With most industrialized economies still lagging, there is little appetite for increasing aid,” the editorial says, therefore concluding, “We need valid, well-documented estimates as to whether a big investment in prevention now might pay for itself in the long run by greatly reducing the number of sick people who have to be cared for” (5/23).