AIDS has already claimed the lives of more than 18 million Africans. Despite promising developments in the past year, the situation is growing worse. More than 9,000 Africans are newly infected each day. Responding to this development threat, World Bank President James Wolfensohn recently noted that intensifying the fight against HIV/AIDS is central to the Bank's mission. On Thursday, the World Bank approved an additional $500 million for the second stage of its Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program for Africa (MAP), bringing the amount of its no-interest HIV/AIDS lending to Africa through this program to $1 billion in the course of the current financial year.