Democratic institutions and practices can affect human development in multiple ways, including population health and well-being. The absence of democracy, in particular, can have deleterious affects on health, as the 1958-1961 Chinese famine and the 2003 SARS outbreak demonstrate. These case studies highlight factors that are essential for preventing a full-scale HIV/AIDS epidemic in China: new and better standards of public accountability; an international imperative to cooperate globally to ensure health; freely available information, especially about disease prevention, control, and treatment; protection of individual rights and freedom of assembly, association and expression; and the ability to voice complaints and opposition. By instituting these rights in a timely fashion, China may be able to contain the HIV/AIDS epidemic before it loses millions of its citizens to yet another public health tragedy.
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Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, 60 College Street, Suite 316, P.O. Box 208034, New Haven, CT 06520-8034, USA;