This is reflected in the higher rates seen in those countries with large population migrations for industrial purposes such as Botswana, and also in the higher rates seen in the national military troops. Staggering though the above statistics may be, they do not do justice to the human cost of the epidemic. Adolescents in their early-mid teens may govern villages in the absence of any living healthy adults. In order to survive these children may in turn engage in high-risk behaviors. Stories of frequent funerals of family and loved ones abound.
Economic costs are immense.
Decreased productivity and income for children compelled to drop out of school in order to care for the ailing, the economic strain on an already taxed health care system, the loss of not only the poor, but also of the affluent politicians, teachers, health care workers and other skilled staff only begins to describe the impact. Dr. Gayle stressed that despite the devastation only hinted at above, there is cause for a glimmer of hope. Condom sales in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Fasso have risen significantly since 1995. An indication of change in behaviors, this has been achieved by introducing condoms into the cultural and social perspectives of the people of these nations. On the topic of the Caribbean, D. Gayle described the region as having the second fastest growth of HIV, particularly countries such as Haiti, Guyana, and the Bahamas.