Long term impact of HIV/AIDS has been underestimated.

WASHINGTON -- HIV/AIDS causes more long-term damage to national economies than previously thought, according to a new report by the World Bank, that says countries such as South Africa face a progressive economic collapse within several generations.

"Previous estimates overlooked the impact of HIV/AIDS on children if one or both parents die, how they can suddenly become orphans, how they become vulnerable to dropping out of school and how, in this way, the disease weakens the ability of today's generation to pass on its skills and knowledge to the next," said the chief economist of the World Bank's Human Development Program, Shanta Devarajan, who coauthored the report.

"In those countries facing an HIV/AIDS epidemic on the same scale as South Africa, for example, if nothing is done quickly to fight their epidemic, they could face economic collapse within several generations, with family incomes being cut in half," Devarajan added.

The report says that the HIV/AIDS epidemic destroys economies by killing off skilled and able workers, wrecking mechanisms that create human capital like stable homes and undermining education prospects.

"This report confirms how important it is for policy makers to act swiftly and effectively to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to treat those with the disease," said study co-author Clive Bell, a visiting World Bank research fellow and professor of economics at Heidelberg University.