The modern infrastructure, the new democracy have not helped, and the numbers are staggering. Already, one in ten South Africans is HIV-positive, and as more HIV infections convert to AIDS cases, the epidemic is becoming visible. Hospitals like this one in rural Kwazulu Natal Province are seriously overcrowded. Joeman Magizi is one of its 400 patients. I'm unable to provide any support for my family.
Families are especially hard hit.
One in five pregnant women in South African clinics is HIV- positive. The AIDS virus accounts for most pediatric cases in hospitals. And the worst is yet to come, since most of the infected have not yet developed AIDS symptoms. In fact, most don't even know they're HIV-positive, and many still feed an infection spiral that is creating about 1,700 new cases every day. So dire are the predictions that economist Alan Whiteside says a new word has been created to describe the situation.