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http:// --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Local Issues Obituaries Weather Archive Revels Etcetera Backpage Hot Topics Most Viewed Forum Photo Galleries Video Readers Polls O-Zone Online Games Movie Preview Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Top Galleries: December 1, 2006 AIDS death cycle grips S. Africa By Robyn Dixon Los Angeles Times In 1990, nine years after the AIDS virus was identified, the map showing the worldwide spread of the disease displayed most of Africa in the palest pink. The infection rate among adults was less than 1 percent. Since then, the colors have deepened faster there than anywhere else on Earth. Southern Africa now is colored crimson. The infection rate is more than 15 percent. The statistics have been repeated so often they cease to shock, even as they soar: 25 million people have died worldwide. Forty million are living with HIV, the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and as many as 14.5 million children have been orphaned by the disease, according to UNAIDS. The United Nations Development Program said in 2005 that AIDS had caused the biggest reversal in human development ever recorded. Just as African countries were beginning to make headway on improving quality of life and decreasing mortality in the 1990s, the rising pandemic erased many of their gains. So sweeping are the repercussions of AIDS that the smaller states in southern Africa might simply collapse under the strain. If all that is difficult to measure, the cost to families and individuals is incalculable. Funerals have replaced weddings as the main family ceremony. People struggle to buy medicine. They borrow to pay for funerals. Breadwinners die and families plunge into poverty and hunger. Many families are made up of orphans and grandparents. Unprotected orphans are exploited sexually or economically, often by their relatives. A myth persists in Africa that sex with a virgin can cure AIDS, a factor in the upsurge of rapes of babies and girls. No one can calculate the cost. Southern Africa can only try to endure the successive waves of infection, illness and death. Leave a Comment: Advertisement: Advertisement: Paid Advertising: Debt Help Inkjet Printers Payday Loans Free Ringtones Debt Consolidation Security Systems Debt Relief New Hampshire Primary Advertisement: Copyright © 2007 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved. Del.icio.us