| Letter From the Editor
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| A Number Problem
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| Rian Malan's report,
"AIDS in Africa: In Search of the Truth," is not about the disease
itself or HIV, the virus that causes it. Instead, it's about what
happened when Malan, who is South African, attempted to verify the
statistics about the disease's prevalence in Africa. Those
chilling numbers - 25.3 million infected, according to the latest
World Health Organization estimate, with 17 million more already
dead - are what form our understanding of the AIDS catastrophe
there and our ideas of how best to deal with it. On that
subject, there seems to be legitimate room for debate - even with
the world's attentions diverted by the events of September 11th,
billions upon billions of dollars have been pledged to combat AIDS
on the continent where it has caused the most suffering, but how
exactly should that money be spent? One question, for example, has
been about whether the bulk of the money should go for costly
drugs to treat those with the disease, or would it be better to
spend it on improving overall living conditions - clean water,
sufficient food, sanitation - in a place where ancient and
treatable scourges such as malaria, TB and diarrhea also kill
millions of people every year?
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Bill
Tonelli, Assistant Managing Editor Here is the full article by Rian Malan |
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