Aids in South Africa is threatening to become a problem. At the end of 1993, 4.25% of Sout

h African adults were HIV positive. By the end of 1994, the figure was 7.57%.

This increase in a year is the largest for the spread of the virus in Africa and possibly the world, and it seems certain that 12% or more of the population will be HIV positive by Christmas.

In the worst hit area, the HIV positive rate now tops 20%. It seems South Africa is moving rapidly towards the catastrophic 35% levels of infection in East Africa. This will be the first time that the virus will have become so widespread in a sophisticated, industrialized country.

Both the present and preceding governments should bear responsibility; each was aware of the crisis and did almost nothing. There is no public campaign to promote safe sex, for example. The apartheid regime was too conscious of religious sensitivities to organize an explicit anti-Aids campaign, and the African National Congress is far too nervous about traditional African attitudes to sex.

A survey of black women in Johannesburg revealed that 75% were willing to accept condoms if they could persuade their partners to use them, but that in practice only 2% had managed to do

so. Women are the chief victims with the highest HIV-positive rates among nurses and teachers.

Many African men have responded to the epidemic by choosing younger and younger partners. There is even a myth that sex with a young enough girl can cure an Aids-stricken male. Inevitably young women are the hardest hit, a phenomenon compounded by the high incidence of rape. More than 100 rapes are reported to the authorities every day, although this figure is believed to represent a minority of actual cases.

Despite the spread of the virus, the statistics manage to struggle on to only about page six of most South African newspapers because the crisis is still in "phoney war" stage —although there are more than 1.8 million HIV-positive South Africans, relatively few of them have developed Aids. Doctors say the virus seems to be taking longer to move through its cycle here, perhaps because South Africans with their higher standards of living, are healthier and therefore more resistant than people further north in Africa.

Without doubt, the present air of complacency will vanish as soon as high profile members of the elite begin to be affected and the implications for the economy sink in. Moreover, the spread of the virus may greatly damage the present racial reconciliation in South Africa, since Aids is now overwhelmingly a disease of blacks, and many whites are beginning to see almost every African as an Aids risk.

According to the passage, which of the following is not blamed as the factor that prevents anti- Aids campaign？

A．Over sensitive to religious belief.

B．Traditional African attitude to sex.

C．High standard of living.

D．The myth about having intercourse with a virgin.