“MBABANE ‚Äî The latest survey of AIDS prevalence in Swaziland, a tiny kingdom of one million people that is the world’s most infected country, has found an unexpected rise in infections — to 42.6 per cent — despite massive efforts to stop the spread of the disease.

African AIDS activists in the small southern African country, and elsewhere on the continent, described the news as shocking and devastating.

‘We did not expect such a difference,’ said Faith Dlamini, the national co-ordinator of AIDS prevention with the National Emergency Response Council on HIV-AIDS. ‘Looking at the situation, we hoped it would at least stabilize, but not be climbing up. . . . There is hopelessness. What we are doing is not working.'”

This is the first official release of these figures that I’ve read. The news is frankly terrible. It’s a call for all of us to respond.