File-In this photo taken Friday Dec. 19, 2008, a patient lays in her bed in the hospice at the Tapalogo project in Phokeng, Rustenburg, South Africa. The bleak burden of AIDS in South Africa is extraordinary, but there is reason for hope, a researcher who has mapped the cost of controlling the epidemic said in an interview. A report Robert Hecht helped prepare, which was released Friday, Nov. 19, 2010, concludes reversing the country's deeply entrenched AIDS epidemic is "extremely difficult, if not impossible, in the coming years." The nation of almost 50 million has more people than any other country with the virus that causes AIDS, an estimated 5.7 million HIV-positive citizens. (AP photo/Denis Farrell-File)