Macabre Equality

On the front page of all the major papers was a story reporting that woman now equal men in numbers of HIV cases. This statistic reflects a broadening of the HIV epidemic, which is currently decimating much of Africa and making inroads in Asia and Latin America. Whereas homosexual males, drug users and prostitutes and their clients were the ones being infected with HIV in the past, the disease has now made inroads into much of the "average" population.

Having gone through megs of data for work, I've noticed that among sub-Saharan African countries, those with greater affluence tend to have the worst epidemic. I don't know why, but my guess would be that the greater mobility and interaction that comes with wealth have moved people from village-based subsistance lifestyles to "freer", more urban and - more pointedly - more promiscuous lifestyles. The best way to avoid HIV is to abstain from sex and drugs (funny how that works), and to have a spouse who does likewise. The tragedy of HIV is magnified by the bitter irony that it is spread mostly by recreational, discretionary behavior. People are so enslaved to sin that they cannot avoid it - even at the cost of their lives.