According to the World Health Organization estimates, based on cumulative reports from 133 countries through February of 1988, the world has had 150,000 cases of AIDS and between 5 million and 10 million people are presently infected with HIV. Health, monetary, and social issues regarding AIDS are present in all nations but differ in each nation according to cultural, political, and medical features. Obstacles to international cooperation in the confrontation of AIDS are grouped into five categories: practical issues, diverging national interests, lack of consensus on the nature of the problem, mutual mistrust among nations, and cultural dissonance. AIDS demonstrates the increasing interdependence between nations in the area of health, as the more it is recognized, the easier it will be to establish proper institutional and conceptual bases for addressing the international interests in its control. 47 notes.