This title offers an original perspective on AIDS as a development issue in South Asia, a region with a heterogeneous epidemic and estimated national HIV prevalence rates of up to 0.5 percent. The analysis challenges the common perception of HIV and AIDS which has been shaped to a large extent by analysis of HIV and AIDS in other regions with much higher prevalence rates. Three risks to development are associated with HIV and AIDS in South the risk of escalation of concentrated epidemics, the economic welfare costs, and the fiscal costs of scaling up treatment.