This journal article from PLoS Medicine looks at the relationship between AIDS and poverty. It emphasises that AIDS is often a disease of transition, as opposed to simply being one of poverty.

It is often asserted that AIDS is at the core of a “vicious circle”, whereby the impacts of AIDS increase poverty and social deprivation, while poverty and social deprivation increase vulnerability to HIV infection. In examining this view, it is important to distinguish between what might be called the “downstream” effects of AIDS on poverty, and the “upstream” effects of poverty upon the risk of acquiring HIV.

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