Swaziland, the first country to die of AIDS?

The scale of Swaziland's epidemic is unique, writes David Blair in Matsanjeni.

A dirt floor and the stinging odour of wood smoke were Margaret Zwane's only companions when she died inside a tumbledown mud hut in rural Swaziland.

She did not ever leave her children to seek hospital treatment and, until a few days before AIDS dragged the life from her, this emaciated mother was struggling to work the fields with a hoe.

When Mrs Zwane succumbed, her daughter and two sons became orphans, for AIDS had already killed their father.

"My heart was painful when she died," said Khetsiwe, her 12-year-old daughter. "I wish she would come back because my mother loved me."

An AIDS epidemic on a scale unknown anywhere else in the world is devastating Swaziland. Figures released last week show that 42.6 per cent of the adult population is infected with either HIV or AIDS. For Swazis aged between 25 and 29, the figure is 56 per cent. With a population of just 1 million, the survival of the nation is at stake.

"If the situation persists, we will be extinct as a Swazi people," said Faith Dlamini, co-ordinator of AIDS prevention at the National Emergency Response Council.

Already, one Swazi in 15 is an AIDS orphan. In five years, people like Khetsiwe will form an eighth of the population.

Khetsiwe lives in Matsanjeni, an arid expanse of hills 160 kilometres from the capital, Mbabane. Of the 8000 who live here, 2000 are children who have lost at least one parent to the epidemic, according to the local MP, John Shiba.

Khetsiwe's family may soon add to this toll. For the little girl's aunt, Zodwa, is desperately ill.

Her family say only that she has a "disease". But Swazis rarely disclose that their relatives are victims of the epidemic and Zodwa is 25 in a country where most people her age are terminally ill. If she dies, her son and two daughters - aged one, three and five - will be orphaned. AIDS has already claimed their father. They will be left wholly reliant on their grandmother, Loster Zwane, 63.

But tuberculosis is crippling Mrs Zwane. An incessant cough has almost robbed her of the power of speech and she can barely stand. She is tormented by the thought of caring for six orphaned grandchildren.

"It is too difficult for me to carry these tasks," said Mrs Zwane. "These children are too small to cook for themselves. They cannot work in the fields. If I die, nobody, nobody can take care of them. I pray that when God takes me, he takes me when these children have grown up."

The children will at least have a place in primary school. The Government has found $9.6 million to pay the fees for every AIDS orphan. But they may not have anything to eat.

So far, no international donor has come forward with the $20.2 million needed to provide every child with one meal during their school day.

Moreover, Swazis worry about what sort of society will emerge from a nation of orphans.

"When these young orphans have matured, what kind of adults will they become?" Miss Dlamini asks. "It's a frightening prospect."

She was taken aback by the latest data on the epidemic. Three years ago, the adult infection rate was 34.2 per cent. "We were hopeful that we would be stabilising the situation," she said. "But when you see the figures rising again, you ask: what more can I do? It is dispiriting and sometimes devastating."

There are some glimmers of hope. The infection rate in the 15 to 19 age group has fallen to 24 per cent, suggesting that teenagers are heeding the message of safe sex and abstinence. The Government has belatedly started a concerted fight against the epidemic and the roads are festooned with billboards promoting the use of condoms and urging teenagers to "say no to sex until the time is right".

But tradition makes their society vulnerable. Polygamy is common and men are judged by the number of women they marry and children they sire.

This, to varying extents, is the challenge across Africa. Already, 25 million people are infected and 16 million Africans have died. The continent's tattered health systems are incapable of containing the epidemic, let alone reversing it, hence Britain's call on the G8 countries to double the flow of aid.

Yet for Khetsiwe, and millions like her, it is already too late.

- Telegraph

my God, 56 percent!!