After several years in gestation, a new World Bank report on AIDS treatment options in India was recently released. HIV/AIDS Treatment and Prevention in India specifically addresses ART, and which policies the Indian government should adopt regarding the procurement and provision of AIDS medicines.

While the press coverage of the report tended to focus on projections of infection ("five million new cases a year in India in 2033"), the main story of the report (and underlying model) is really something else: ART will succeed or fail depending on what happens to condom usage. If ART promotes condom usage (because of tying treatment and prevention programs), then ART will lessen new infections. If ART discourages condom usage (because of disinhibition effects), then ART will increase new infections.

While AIDS economists can pick at the model, and while the Bank is a lightening rod for most policy reports such as this, the key messages regarding the interplay between treatment and prevention shouldn't be overlooked. In addition, the report serves as a well-presented primer on ART policy in environments with low but growing prevalence of HIV -- which is to say, most countries of the world. Kudos to the authors: Mead Over, Peter Heywood, Julian Gold, Indrani Gupta, Subhash Hira, and Elliot Marseille.