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CNN Saturday Morning News

AIDS Virus Infects 25 Million Africans

Aired May 05, 2001 - 08:28   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: It's a pretty staggering number, but some 25 million Africans are infected with the AIDS virus and have little medicine and little hope.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN Johannesburg bureau chief Charlayne Hunter-Gault has been looking into this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the hospital, they ran countless tests.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know. I know it. You see?

UNIDENTIFIED DOCTOR: You think you need to get attention, you need to be sick.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED DOCTOR: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then finally this very old doctor said oh, you're so young. And I have very sad news for you. And he went to his board. There was a number, 274, and he changed that to 275. He added on the five. And then he said what a shame, what a waste. You're so young and you've got AIDS. You're going to die.

HUNTER-GAULT: This stunning announcement 10 years ago threw Prudence Mabella into a deep depression. She was 18 years old. And yet in 1991, HIV AIDS was barely on South Africa's radar screen. Few medical professionals here knew much about it, few counselors able to advise. University officials, she says, were downright hostile, forcing her to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But then when I decided one day -- there's a lot of antibiotics and I want to really end my life and I took all of them and I was drinking, I drank a lot of them, and then I went to bed and I got miffed up, but I didn't die.

HUNTER-GAULT: It was after the second failed suicide attempt, this time with sleeping pills, that Prudence awoke to a new decision: to get on with her life, a new life.

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