One of the world's worst disasters is under way in Africa. AIDS is devastating sub-Saharan Africa, and South Africa has been especially hard hit. The government in Pretoria, however, has played down the scale of the crisis and, consequently, has been slow to respond to it.
New statistics should shatter the complacency that checks aggressive action against this disease in South Africa. Denial will only ensure that the AIDS epidemic picks up speed and claims yet more victims. AIDS has already claimed more than 25 million lives. Today, more than 40 million people live with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS. And almost two-thirds of those who have HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa, even though that region makes up only one-tenth of the world's population.
In South Africa, there are an estimated 5 million HIV-positive citizens out of a total population of 45 million -- the most of any nation. Some 25 percent of women between the age of 20 and 29 are infected with the virus.