The numbers needed to describe deaths, infections, and orphans
brought by AIDS in Africa are too large for us to understand.
We can simplify these numbers into abstract models; we can show
them in relation to one another; we can chart them,
graph them, subdivide them into smaller more tangible numbers.
However, we have to accept at the end that we are not capable of
grasping the scale in which people of Africa are suffering and dying
due to HIV/AIDS.
Diagrams also fail to connect statistics with the real people they are meant to represent.
When looking at a chart, it is easy to forget that each number represents a real
life, with real family members and friends. A death is not a single unit, but an
end of a painful progression of sickness that leaves behind widows, orphans, and demoralized communities.
Despite their weaknesses, diagrams serve an important tool for explaining
the complicted dynamics of this monsterous epidemic.
Most of the "People Charts" above are generated dynamically based on
information stored in an online database.
This makes it much easier to update the statistics and keep the site up to date,
an especially important feature since the epidemic is in constant motion.
Most of the statistics presented here, including HIV prevalence, cause of death,
and HIV/AIDS models have been obtained through UNAIDS website and World Health Organization's public
Information on drug prices is partly drawn from a report by Doctors without Borders.