Worse yet, the disease jeopardizes the future of Africa by turning its youth into a generation of orphans, lacking the social supports provided by parents and family. A huge numer of the world's orphans are African children, largely because their mothers did not have access to expensive drugs and healthcare that can prolong lives and block transmission. No one cares for them, By 2010, the number of AIDS orphans in Africa will reach a staggering 44 million. Denial, Abandonment by families, Lovers, and Friends. A culture of silence prevails.
Denial exists even among the medical profession.
The story of AIDS is a sociological story about misfits. Nobody wants the stigma, so people pretend that they don't know why people are dying. The victims don't cry out. Doctors and obituaries do not give the killer its name. Families recoil in shame.