The price of going public, or even merely being suspected to be HIV-positive, includes being turned away from health care services, denied housing and employment and shunned by friends and colleagues.

Other sanctions include being turned down for insurance cover or denied entry into foreign lands.

Testimonies abound of HIV carriers, who have been evicted by their landlords, divorced by their spouses or suffered physical violence including death.

Four religious leaders in Africa have stepped forward acknowledging they have AID’s in an attempt to end Africa church’s silence, stigma and discrimination.

Anglican lay leader Gibson Mwangangi Mwadime (Kenya), pastor Amin Sandewa (Tanzania), Canon Gideon Byamugisha (Uganda) and Catholic priest Jape Heath of South Africa revealed their status at a forum organised by the Kenya Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally Affected by HIV/Aids at a Nairobi hotel.

The WHO has found compiling statistics on AIDs/HIV difficult in Africa.
The 2003 statistics for the continent are here.