“Unless vigorous and timely action is taken, South Asian countries run the risk of experiencing the devastating social and economic impacts of the kind of full-blown AIDS epidemics seen elsewhere in the world.” –The World Bank

The World Bank reports that HIV/AIDS in South Asia is increasing for reasons including stigmatization of the disease and lack of adequate information and education in rural areas. Studies show that many women in rural areas, for example, have never even heard of HIV/AIDS.

In India, nearly six million people are living with HIV/AIDS. That makes India the country with the highest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world, although as a percentage of population the number is lower than other countries.

Water-borne diseases also greatly affect India’s population, with estimates saying up to 80 percent of all health problems come from water-borne illness. This is largely a result of the pollution in the Ganges. Human waste is dumped into the river, animal carcasses and human bodies are cremated or thrown directly into it, factories dump chemicals into it, and run-off from farms also leads to contamination.

Maternal mortality is also a concern—South Asia has the lowest level of professional care at birth in the world.

In Sri Lanka, the ongoing Civil War brings with it increased health care concerns, especially in the northeast where fighting is most severe. Improvements that have been made to health care facilities elsewhere in the country have not always been made in the northeast, leading to increased incidents of diseases like malaria. About 70 percent of reported malaria cases in the country in 2003 were from the northeast.