Keith Hanson of the World Bank AIDS Campaign Team for Africa said his organization had finally realized the seriousness of the epidemic and was beginning to increase the attention devoted to it.

"Life expectancy has fallen by 10 years in Africa, and may fall to 30 years. [This rate] has not been seen for about 1,000 years in Europe," Hanson said.

Sachs urged a comprehensive response to the crisis in Africa, calling on wealthy nations to contribute to a program that integrates prevention, treatment, research and organization into a coherent whole.

Calling on industrialized countries to provide greater assistance, Sachs said, "Nothing's been done in scale. Perhaps $70 million was spent last year in Sub-Saharan Africa, or approximately $3 per person afflicted."

Sachs said that using generic drug products could result in significantly lower costs than those projected by many opponents of increased assistance.

"It would cost $365 to save an adult African for one year....The orphans [would then] keep their parents, which is a damn good buy," Sachs said.

He called for billions of dollars in place of the $70 million currently contributed by the U.S., blaming the current paucity of funds on the greed of wealthy nations.