It is believed that the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, first originated from Africa decades ago, and today many would agree that this is the place where it is causing the most devastation. Nearly 27 million of the 36 million people infected with AIDS worldwide, are in Africa. This number is a similar amount of Europeans who died of the Bubonic Plague in the fourteenth century. The lifetime risk of dying from AIDS now is as high as 50%, and the epidemic is increasing at an alarming rate. South Africa has been hit especially hard. Ten to twelve percent of adults are infected with HIV leading to a total of more than 4.2 million adults and children infected with the virus. UNICEF reports note that almost one in four women aged between 15 and 24 are infected and one in ten men. The current president, Thabo Mbeki, suggests that poverty is the main cause of AIDS, but I believe that it is far from the only cause involv

Since the introduction of democracy in 1994, poverty in South Africa hasn't significantly changed, but AIDS has increased rapidly. In the early 1990's AIDS was not a significant problem there. It was prevalent in Uganda and Cote D'Ivoire on the West Coast. There are many factors which have influenced this huge rise in prevalence. It has gone from a constant 3% occurrence in pregnant women to a 20% occurrence today, these figures are taken from the Chris Haney Hospital. AIDS related diseases now account for most of the cases in this hospital.

Health workers have worked hard over the past few years and the awareness of AIDS, the causes of AIDS, and the prevention are at 98%. Health officials don't understand why there is so much refusal to acknowledge what this epidemic is doing. Only one in ten women have sex with a condom yet most of them know the risks involved with this, and condom use is much higher in neighboring countries where they are much less widely available. The health profession is baffled, why hasn't awareness translated into changed behavior?

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Approximate Word count = 1381
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)