Need for Emphasis on Treatment AIDS programs in developing countries put little emphasis on treatment, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, asking for more small community-based clinics to be opened to treat HIV-infected people. An estimated 36 million to 46 million people are living with AIDS, two-thirds of them in Africa, but only 440,000 people in developing countries were receiving treatment by the end of 2003, the UN health agency said in its annual report. 'Without treatment, all of them will die a premature and in most cases painful death,' the WHO said in the t69-page World Health Report. WHO Director General Lee Jong wook said community-based treatment should be added to disease prevention and care for suffers in AIDS programs. 'Future generations will judge our time in large part by our response to the AIDS disease,' Lee said. 'By tackling it decisively we will also be building health systems that can meet the health needs of to- day and tomorrow. This is a historic opportunity we cannot afford to miss, 'he adds. Antiretroviral drugs enable people hit by AIDS to live longer. The annual cost of treatment, which was about $ 10,000 when the drugs were first developed, has dropped to about $150. Treatment programs also help AIDS prevention efforts, the report said, citing great demands for testing and counseling where treatment has been made available. Good counseling in turn leads to more effective prevention in those who are uninfected, and significantly reduces the potential for HIV carriers to pass on the infection, the report said. Since its discovery in 1980s, more than 20 million have died of AIDS, mostly in poor countries. Which is true of many AIDS sufferers in developing countries?