World leaders must act to fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa, the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers '83 said in a speech at the Institute of Politics yesterday.
"There is a virtual holocaust in Sub-Saharan Africa," Rivers said. "Africa is about to slide off the face of the Earth."
According to the United Nations Program on AIDS, 4 million of the 5.6 million cases of new HIV infections in 1999 were in Africa.
"The statistics are so unbelievable, that it doesn't seem possible," Rivers said to an audience sobered by the numbers.
He said that rampant cases of rape and sexual promiscuity have left Africa decimated, with AIDS the leading cause of death on the continent.
"The sexual exploitation of young women there is mind-boggling," Rivers said.
He said the problem of AIDS-related deaths have even caused environmental consequences.
"There is ecological disorder due to deforestation due to coffin construction," Rivers said.
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