david bennett: the impact of h.i.v./aids in africa has been incredible.se the young people who are really the productive segment of society, so that you now have grandmothers who are looking after grandchildren because the adults have disappeared. so a tremendous burden. florence mwayopa: these are some of the children that belong to this household. they are being looked after by their great-grandmother. th.. grandther had twelve children she has lost all except for two. as i traveled to other nations in the world, and especially resource-poor areas of the world, one of the things that i'm struck with most is that they are exactly where we were 15 years ago at the very beginning of the epidemic. the first point is that most government officials don't understand what's ready to hit them. one problem that haunts the public health community is how to attack the epidemic as it is spreading through major population areas. there was an international conference on h.i.v./aids in geneva, switzerland, a year ago. the title of the conference was "bridging the gap."