A. Epidemiology and Social Impact Africa is the global epicenter of AIDS. An esti- mated 83 percent of all of the world’s AIDS deaths, since the start of the epidemic, occurred in Africa. By the end of 1998, at least 34 million people living in sub-Saharan Africa had become infected with HIV, and some 11.5 million of these have already died. In 1998 alone, about 2 million Africans died from HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, 1999). Countries in the southern and eastern parts of Africa are particularly affected. In Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe, for example, between 20 percent and 26 percent of adults aged 15-49 are HIV-infected. In other countries, such as Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, at least 10 percent of adults are HIV-infected. Overall, about 65 percent of all new adult HIV infections occur in young men and women less than 30 years old (UNAIDS, 1999). For a map of HIV-1 infection levels in low-risk urban populations of Africa, see Figure 1.