New Guidelines for Fighting HIV At the moment, four million people around the world receive anti-retroviral drugs. There's another five million who need them but don't get them. The WHO recommendations on when to start treatment for HIV would mean an extra three to five million people would be added to that waiting list. The WHO wants people who have HIV to start drugs before their immune systems get so weak that they start displaying symptoms. A study recently published in the medical journal The Lancet showed starting treatment at the newly recommended level could increase survival by nearly 70% . It would also add significantly to the cost on health care systems. In South Africa, which has one of the biggest HIV burdens in the world, currently fewer than half of the people who should be receiving HIV drugs get them. Poor health infrastructure is a common problem for nearly all developing countries. Putting HIV-positive people on drugs earlier would significantly reduce the cost to health systems of treating opportunistic infections- illnesses which take hold while the immune system is weak. It would also greatly improve life expectancy of HIV patients, with repercussions for families and the workforce. The WHO is still working out how much it would cost countries to improve their treatment regimes, but it won't be cheap. What is the main idea of this passage?