SA's HIV Population is 5.6 million. But it could be 7.6 million

One great strategy to deal with AIDS is to start off addressing the size of the problem. In South Africa we have a Health Minister...finish that sentence yourself. If we have stats that differ by a margin of over 1 million, you know the government doesn't even have a handle on the problem. Because the most logical place to start is by freaking knowing how many people are actually infected, and then working to bring those numbers down.

One model estimates that 1 out 0f 5 of the economically active segment of the population is HIV positive.

Half a million new infections are projected for this year. Around 370,000 Aids related deaths will occur in 2008, that's 1014 people (a large high school) wiped out each day.

Right now about 650,000 South Africans have full blown Aids.

Meanwhile, based on the behaviour I am party to, a lot of South Africans think that South Africa is a country a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. Perhaps they are part of that 1 million that no one is sure about?