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xxviFighting the Diseases of Povertywhich would have been politically unpopular, but more effective atreducing the incidence of HIV/AIDS (such as investing a greater proportionof available resources in prevention).This politicisation of disease is counterproductive: it directsenergy and resources towards the causes championed by the mosteffective and charismatic pressure groups, and away from otherapproaches that do not attract the same level of cheerleading.UNAIDS has estimated that treating HIV/AIDS will require $22.1bnin 2008, or approximately 30 per cent of all Overseas DevelopmentAssistance (ODA) from OECD countries. As more patients becomedrug resistant and are moved onto second-line therapies, the cost ofachieving the UN’s goal of putting 10 million on treatment couldeasily rise to $44bn by 2010 – not including the costs of corruption,recurrent costs, or the lavish running costs of international organisations(and their consultants), which could easily boost this figureto over $62 billion. At around 65 per cent of all ODA spendingglobally (Adelman et al., 2005), this would leave precious little totackle the myriad other diseases which afflict people in less developedcountries.PrioritisationThe politicisation of diseases such as HIV/AIDS has warped globalhealth priorities to the extent that the relatively simple and inexpensiveare often neglected in favour of the complex and expensive.Donors often lose sight of the fact, for instance, that HIV/AIDS isonly one of many health problems faced by less developed countries:the biggest killer of children is chest disorders caused byburning biomass fuels in poorly ventilated homes, followed by diarrhoealdiseases. As the chapter on the “10/90 gap” observed, thesediseases are easy and inexpensive to prevent, but have received relativelylittle attention from the international community.Another area which delivers extremely cost-effective and quickresults is vaccination. Because of vaccination programmes, preventablechildhood diseases such as polio, measles and pertussis