One in four women between 20 and 29 is infected, more than young men. Young women are often forced to partner highly infected populations of older men who refuse protection. Without education, Vermont teens could make such assumptions. Kefiloe Ramela spoke so softly you could feel her broken heart. These voices have clarity from abandonment and isolation.
Stories show fear promotes ostracism, stigma, and denial, blocking prevention.
We have improved, but it still happens here in marginalized, uneducated populations. Socio-economic, and human rights inequities dominated discussion in Durban, magnifying US concerns. No more than Germans in the Nazi era, nor more than white South Africans during apartheid, can we at this Conference say we bear no responsibility for 30 million people in resource-poor countries who face death from AIDS unless medical care and treatment is made accessible. Many decried prices that deny treatment to 95 percent of infected people. To spread the alarm about Africa is to tell the world what awaits.