Africa's affliction

Health officials call it an epidemic, folk doctors call it the plague, and church workers believe it is a divine opportunity. Can Africa beat AIDS? | Mindy Belz

At a mission church in Ivory Coast, AIDS victims receive front-row seats. Each Sunday the young congregation in Abidjan reserves its best view for those who may be too ill to appreciate it. Blankets and pillows are ready if they are too sick or too weak to sit or stand through the long singing and worship service. But the seats are usually filled because AIDS sufferers say it is that rare place where they feel socially welcome.

Out of that simple gesture the Abidjan congregation, with the help of American missionary physician Tom Edwards, operates a thriving home health ministry, where volunteer church members visit with and counsel AIDS patients.

AIDS may be killing Africa, but it is not out of the closet. Although 2 million Africans die of AIDS each year, and between 70 and 90 percent of all the world's AIDS cases are in sub-Saharan Africa, the illness remains taboo as either a topic of conversation or the subject of public-service campaigns.