We have long known that Africa, presumably the continent where AIDS first developed, is also the one where the scourge is exerting its most devastating effects. More than two thirds of the total of the 28 million infected with HIV in developing countries live in Africa.
Reasons given include male promiscuity and low condom use.
Life expectancy in Africa, which before the epidemic hit had climbed to 70 years is in many places less than 40. As a result, girls are being infected at a rate five times that for boys. Whatever the reason, and I am sure there are many more than listed here, the chances of controlling AIDS in Africa appear bleak indeed. On page 25 of our Winter 1996 issue I reviewed the book, Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets, to me a frightening analysis of former and future impacts of asteroids and comets on earth. The blasts, which create huge fireballs, occur over the sea and uninhabited lands and therefore are rarely seen.