In sub-Saharan Africa, the worst affected region, 29 million people are living with the virus. A few years ago, malaria and a host of tropical diseases were the main cause of premature death. That has changed; AIDS is now the main killer. The threat is worsening. In this area approximately 3.5 million new infections occurred in 2002, while the epidemic claimed the lives of an estimated 2.4 million Africans in the past year. Women now outnumber men among people living with the disease, and a chilling statistic in terms of future vulnerability and likely social problems is that 11 million children have lost one or both parents to the disease.