The story of the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, which has already claimed more than 20 million lives, is one of massive neglect and denial. Millions of Africans had already died before the continent's AIDS epidemic even registered on the global radar screen or was publicly recognized as a problem by decision-makers in affected countries. It took even longer for Africa and the world to notice that in this epidemic, unlike AIDS in other regions of the world, women and girls became ill and died in greater numbers than men and boys. Sadly, policymakers still are not taking into account the extent to which AIDS prevalence in Africa is a direct result of relentless human rights abuses that women and girls suffer because of their gender.