Predicating the future is a risky business for a scientist. It is safe to say, that the global AIDs epidemic will get much worse before it gets any better. Sadly, this modern plague will be with us for several generations, despite of major scientific advances.【S1】______ As of January 2000, the AIDS epidemic had claimed 15million lives and left 40 million people leaving with a viral infection【S2】______that slowly but relentlessly erodes the immune system. Accountingof more than 3 million deaths in the past year alone, the AIDs virus【S3】______has become the deadly microbe in the world. In Africa nearly a【S4】______dozen countries have a rate higher than 10% , including foursouthern African nations which a quarter of the people are infected.【S5】______This is like condemning 16,000 people each day to a slow and miserable death. Unfortunately, the AIDs story has not been all gloom and【S6】______doom. Less than two years after AIDs was recognized, the guiltyagent—human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV—identified. We【S7】______now know more about HIV than about any other virus, but 14 AIDS【S8】______drugs have been developed and licensed in the U. S. and western Europe. The epidemic continues to rage, however, in south America, Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. By the year 2025, AIDs will have been by far the major killer of young Africans, decreasinglife expectant to as low as 40 years in some countries and single-【S9】______handedly erasing the public health gains of the past 50 years. It is Asia, with its huge population at risk, where will have the【S10】______biggest impact on the global spread of AIDS. The magnitude of the incidence could range from 100 million to 1 billion, depending largely on what happens in India and China. 【S7】