uot;Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome". We now know that AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that is spread from person to person via fluid transfer and it is easier for a woman to contract it than a man. It also infects people through sharing intravenous needles, usually illegal drug use. Furthermore, AIDS can change its genetic code to confuse our bodies and ultimately prevent us from producing antibodies, which help cure the disease. We now know that it takes about ten years for the disease to become fully mature and then most infected people begin to lose their health (Umeh, 1997, p. XV-XVI). There are several different subtypes of the HIV virus A, B, C, D, and E. Subtypes A, D, and C are each found within Africa's borders (Cozic and Roleff, 1998, p. 29). Since AIDS emerged twenty years ago, thirty million have been infected and six million have died from AIDS (Confronting AIDS, 1999, p. 1). Unfortunately for Africa, ninety percent of infections occur in developing countries, and since most of Africa is still developing there is a need for immediate response. The areas most heavily infected are located in the sub-Saharan region and South Africa. Some countries have as much as twenty-five percent of the population infected (Botswana, Zimbabwe) (Confronting AIDS, 1999, p. 330,338). Sub-Saharan Africa includes all countries south of the Sahara Desert. AIDS is far more devastating and overcoming the problem much larger in still developing countries (Confronting AIDS, 1999, p.1). The disease spread, probably from central Africa, from person to person so rapidly because people were unaware the disease even existed. The people were unaware because HIV can remain hidden in a person's body, without proper screening, and consequently people passed it along through sexual relations. Overtime the disease traveled exponentially and infected large numbers of the populatio
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