Each grave in Zambia's Chunga cemetery is topped with a withered floral tribute and a makeshift cross. During the weekend, a new funeral procession arrives every 15 or 20 minutes. The deadly epidemic is tearing through the continent, decimating Africans in their most productive years. In all, AIDS will kill some 2.4 million people in Africa this year, many of them teachers, doctors, civil servants, and soldiers. In some ways, AIDS has been the invisible killer.
Victims frequently die of opportunistic infections or pneumonia.
And with treatment prohibitively expensive, all 25 million Africans who are currently infected likely will die within 10 years. Life expectancy is plunging continentwide, yet much of Africa is still in denial. Death notices rarely mention AIDS, and most governments have been painfully slow to embrace prevention campaigns. The worst is yet to come. In South Africa, one of the worst-hit countries, AIDS already accounts for a quarter of all deaths.