Conclusions
Unrelieved acute and chronic pain is a serious public health problem worldwide, and 80 percent of cancer patients and 50 percent of AIDS patients experience severe pain during the last months of life. Relief for these patients is possible only with oral morphine or another opioid, but developing countries face many barriers in this respect. Nevertheless, model pain and palliative care programs have demonstrated the feasibility of providing opioid treatment safely, effectively, and inexpensively in resource-poor settings. To this end, national governments must resolve the legal and regulatory barriers to opioid availability, but they need the expertise and support of the global community to make pain relief a reality.
