Alicia Keys Calls for African AIDS Action

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Alicia Keys is calling on her peers in the music industry to raise their voices to help millions suffering from AIDS in Africa.

'Just for a moment imagine the media hysteria and global outrage if 25 million Americans, many of them children, died from a treatable disease because the medicine was too costly,' Keys writes in a commentary published in Friday's issue of Billboard magazine. 'Imagine if another 42 million people were infected and had no hope of paying for life-saving treatment. ... This is exactly what is happening throughout sub-Saharan Africa.'

Keys, who recently travelled to Africa, noted that UNAIDS estimates 100 million people will be infected with the AIDS virus by the end of this decade, and that fewer than 1 percent of Africans with AIDS have access to antiretroviral treatment that has greatly improved the lives of AIDS patients in Western countries.