Scholars estimate that by the year 2020 the economic losses from AIDS to Thailand will have reached the equivalent of nine years of economic growth. Yang Yan-shih notes that Thailand and Taiwan recorded their first cases of AIDS at the same time, in 1984.
以愛滋病為例，有學者估計，到西元二○二○年，泰國因愛滋病所造成的經濟損失，累計將達「九個經濟成長年」。