If you asked the average African if they know how many people died from HIV/AIDS, they will tell you that they don't know. The last thing that they know or even suspect, in the least, is that the totals run into a quarter of a billion, according to some estimates. And these estimates could be conservative.
The average African out on the African paths (and the few streets) doesn't know why it was estimated at the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic by western experts that Africa will have the youngest population on the planet as its older people got decimated by the virus.
And it has come to pass. The prophecy has been fulfilled.
Well, it's not really a prophecy. Prophecies are more or less guess work. This was a prognostication that turned out to have been accurate.
If you ask why Africans don't know that they lost so many people to the AIDS epidemic, the answers you will get vary, but the one that's most truthful isn't just that the information isn't public domain, but also that it is not accessible as a continental total except by access to clinical records that has to be granted by permission of individual African countries, after which the total for the continent can be calculated.
As for Africans without such access, having at least an idea of the sheer scale and scope of deaths from this virus isn't possible using alternate means, such as observation, because the deaths occurred over a prolonged period of time among isolated communities and neighborhoods.
But even with access to the raw data we find that matters are confounded by the fact some African governments were not collecting, collating, and storing data on the deaths. This all means that, for the most part, the total death toll from the HIV/AIDS epidemic can only be estimated.
This situation can be equated to how Africa doesn't have the likes of a VAERS website where deaths or injuries from specific medications are reported, a kind of central data gathering center where safety and efficacy of treatments can be checked. The continent doesn't have a central data collection point for deaths caused by ARV regimens or of injuries from vaccines.
The deaths from HIV/AIDS occurred in isolated places and though people realized there were more deaths occurring than there had been before, they were not counting the totals on a minute and larger scale. Because Africans could not know the scope of the problem, they could only get used to seeing multiple funerals of young people.
Death and dying became normal to Africans. Seeing that it wasn't normal would take someone from a different continent where funerals are usually reserved for old people.
This is what is going to happen again when the Covid19 Vaccines become activated, but this time it will not just be Africa that goes through this, but almost the entire planet. I say almost because places like China aren't playing along. They didn't abandon the one child policy because they wanted less people.
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