Dr. Joel Brodsky and his wife recently returned from a 2 week visit to Africa. They visited three countries: South Africa, Zambia and Botswana. While there they saw many animals including Lions, Rhinos, Giraffes, Hippos, Elephants, Zebras, Monkeys, Baboons, etc. Dr B’s favorite animal was the wart hog which is featured in the movie Lion King.
The saddest part of the trip was visiting a village in Zambia where 30% of the children are orphans because both parents have died of AIDS. These three countries have the highest rate of AIDS infection in the world–affecting more than 10% of the population! Despite efforts to educate the people the rate of AIDS infection is not decreasing in Africa nor is the rate of death from the disease. In Zambia, a country of 10 million, almost 1 million have the disease. This year 89,000 people will die from it. The number of orphans in the country is already over 800,000!