The new book 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa profiles one person whose life has been affected by AIDS for every million people living with the disease on the continent.
Among the book's subjects are AIDS counselor Prisca Mhlolo of Zimbabwe, who was beaten bloody by her own family when she told them she had HIV; Alice Kadzanja, a nurse in Malawi who estimates that 2,000 nurses she worked with or knew of have died of AIDS; and Lefa Khoele in Lesotho, who at age 12 had been sick so much that he was only in third grade. He has been thriving since he started receiving AIDS drugs, the names of which are some of the first English words he learned: Nevirapine, Efavirenz
Author Stephanie Nolen talks to Melissa Block about some of these remarkable people, whom she met as a reporter for Toronto's Globe and Mail. She is the only Western journalist dedicated exclusively to covering AIDS in Africa.
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