The Economic Impact of Aids In South Africa.
For over ten years South Africa has been in denial of its most threatining problem. The cost of ignorring this problem is the highest HIV and AIDS rates in the World. This problem has the abilty to to crush the nations population, work force, and economy. "AIDS makes most of South Africa's other problems seem trivial-(8210:8).
Little is known for certain about how many people are now infected, and all forcasts involve some speculation-(8210:8). The first case of AIDS in South Africa occured in 1987, where as the countries farther north than South Africa had their first AIDS cases way before. The epidemic did not begin in South Africa until 1993. "A study for ING Barings last year predicted 8m infections by 2005. A study by Abt Associates, a Johanesburg consulting firm , forcast the number of deaths attributable to AIDS at 354,000-383,000 in 2005, rising to 545,000-635,000 in 2010. Average life expectancy is set to fall from 60 years to 40 by 2008-(8210:8).
Journalist Johanna McGeary spent a month in South Africa to get an up close and personal experience of how of AIDS effects the South African community. She got exactly that. She said that the hardest part was "breaking through the walls of stigma and silence that surround the disease-(6:6). She found it difficult to keep asking "Do you know why you are sick? How did you get Aids?-(6:6). Johanna McGeary often finds it difficult to record the facts and emotions of somebody's tragedy. "Still, Johanna was struck by how many people in Africa with so little helped those with even less, and how .
far a few dollarscan go. You can keep and AIDS infected orphan in school for a year with a donation of $50, and that makes the difference between having a futcher and having none- (6:6).
Jim Nachtwey has been a photographer for Time magizine since 1984. He took the photos for this trip, and he decribes his experience by saying "The drama of the AIDS epidemic is more subtile than the older calamities that have rocked Africa.