Amidst the famine, water shortages, and other huge socio-economical problems in Africa, there is yet another monster rampaging through the continent. Countless thousands have died. Thousands of whole human beings, living people, with hearts, dreams, families and friends. The death rate is one of such epic scale that I don't even think the abortion rate can compare.

Children are being orphaned. HIV positive people are being excommunicated, beaten, or worse. AIDS is running rampant through Africa and causing a major sociological divide amongst their own people, but it is all too easy for the rest of the world to ignore it.

When I talk to people at home about the pandemic, I get the sense that they feel a dying African is somehow different from a dying Canadian, American or German - that Africans have lower expectations or place less value on their lives. - source: NPR article on a book

There are 28 million living people with AIDS or HIV in Africa. Living. 28 million. How many will die in the next week, month, or year? How many have already died? How many brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters? How many friends, co-workers, teachers, fire fighters, nurses, inventors and great philosphers have been lost to this disease?

The disease itself is only part of the problem - the fact that it kills and is so easily spread has created the other problem. No matter the stage of the disease, if you have it, you are effectively already dead - to the community, at least.

Grandmothers are restricted from seeing their grandchildren. Children can't go to school, no matter how much they want to. Nurses and other professionals flat out lose their job. And beating or even killing people living with the disease is somehow socially acceptable to those without the disease.

What can you do about it?

First, educate yourself on what's going on. Stephanie Nolan's new book 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa would be a good place to start.

I can't tell every story. I decided to tell twenty-eight - one for each million people infected in Africa. Their stories explain how the disease works, how it spreads and how it kills. They explain how AIDS is horribly, inextricably tied to conflict and to famine and to the collapse of states. They explain how treatment works, when people can get it and how the people who can't get it fight to stay alive with virtually no help and no support.