Believe it or not, South Africa is right now faced with a pandemic as devastating as any other in history.
Additionally, HIV/AIDS in South Africa is exacerbated by poverty. Did you know that 61% of children here live in poverty ?
In 1998, the infant mortality rate was 45 per 1,000 (one of the highest in the world). More than 50% of children have no birth certificate 15.5%, or 1.6 million children (who are of school-going age) are out of school. One out of every eight girls (12.5%) is forced out of school due to pregnancy. South Africa has the fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world. In the year 2000, 19.94% of the population was infected with HIV/AIDS. In the year 2000, one person was infected every 45 seconds. One person died every two minutes.
