Free Essays on Aids In Africa

AIDS in Zimbabwe Africa is dying. Once the cradle of civilization, the African continent is now ravaged by AIDS, and an entire generation is threatened with extinction. In Zimbabwe, an estimated 20 to 25 percent of adults are infected with AIDS and an increasing number of children, many already orphaned by the disease, are infected too. Those who have escaped AIDS so far face an uncertain future in a country where knowledge and culture are dying along with the people. Zimbabwe struggles against Aids onslaught The disaster in Zimbabwe is far worse than anyone expected By Evan Davis, BBC television's Newsnight economics correspondent, in Zimbabwe I thought I already knew all I needed to about the impact of HIV and AIDS in Africa. Watch the Newsnight report by Evan Davis Certainly I knew it was a human catastrophe, that the virus was running through populations on a scale unknown in the West, in an area of the world ill-equipped to cope. But it was only when a British businessman with extensive experience in Zimbabwe described to me some of the practical effects the illness is having on society there, that I decided I should find out more. Living in the shadow of Aids Zimbabwe now has the dubious honour of being the world's most infected country - about a quarter of the adult population is HIV positive. In many urban areas, infection runs to 40%. In the army, it is more like 80%. Life expectancy at birth, on one estimate, is poised to fall to 38 years. The country suffers from having an economy advanced enough for the virus to spread, in particular, on relatively good roads - epidemiologists have tracked high HIV prevalence along the main freight routes. Alas, the economy may be strong enough to help HIV, but it is not strong enough to fight it. Zimbabweans cannot get modern anti-retroviral drug combinations because in Zimbabwe, the annual health budget is about  £5.50 per person, enough t... Free Essays on Aids In Africa Free Essays on Aids In Africa AIDS in Zimbabwe Africa is dying. Once the cradle of civilization, the African continent is now ravaged by AIDS, and an entire generation is threatened with extinction. In Zimbabwe, an estimated 20 to 25 percent of adults are infected with AIDS and an increasing number of children, many already orphaned by the disease, are infected too. Those who have escaped AIDS so far face an uncertain future in a country where knowledge and culture are dying along with the people. Zimbabwe struggles against Aids onslaught The disaster in Zimbabwe is far worse than anyone expected By Evan Davis, BBC television's Newsnight economics correspondent, in Zimbabwe I thought I already knew all I needed to about the impact of HIV and AIDS in Africa. Watch the Newsnight report by Evan Davis Certainly I knew it was a human catastrophe, that the virus was running through populations on a scale unknown in the West, in an area of the world ill-equipped to cope. But it was only when a British businessman with extensive experience in Zimbabwe described to me some of the practical effects the illness is having on society there, that I decided I should find out more. Living in the shadow of Aids Zimbabwe now has the dubious honour of being the world's most infected country - about a quarter of the adult population is HIV positive. In many urban areas, infection runs to 40%. In the army, it is more like 80%. Life expectancy at birth, on one estimate, is poised to fall to 38 years. The country suffers from having an economy advanced enough for the virus to spread, in particular, on relatively good roads - epidemiologists have tracked high HIV prevalence along the main freight routes. Alas, the economy may be strong enough to help HIV, but it is not strong enough to fight it. Zimbabweans cannot get modern anti-retroviral drug combinations because in Zimbabwe, the annual health budget is about  £5.50 per person, enough t... Free Essays on Aids In Africa As recently as 1990, there were some regions of the world that had remained relatively unscathed by AIDS. Today, however, there is not a single country around the world which has wholly escaped the AIDS epidemic. As the epidemic has matured, some of the developed nations which were hard hit by the epidemic in the 1980s such as the United States have reported a slowing in the rate of new infections and a stabilization among existing cases with lower mortality rates and an extension of post-diagnosis lifespan. However, despite the changing face of the global AIDS pandemic, one factor remains unchanged: no region of the world bears a higher AIDS-related burden than sub-Saharan Africa. This paper examines the demographic effects of AIDS in Africa, focusing on the hardest-hit countries of sub-Saharan Africa and considers the present and future impact of the AIDS epidemic on major demographic measures such as fertility, mortality, life expectancy, gender, age, and family structure. Althoug h the sub-Saharan region accounts for just 10% of the world’s population, 67% (22.5 million) of the 33.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS in 1998 were residents of one of the 34 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, and of all AIDS deaths since the epidemic started, 83% have occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (Gilks, 1999, p. 180). Among children under age 15 living with HIV/AIDS, 90% live in sub-Saharan Africa as do 95% of all AIDS orphans. In several of the 34 sub-Saharan nations, 1 out of every 4 adults is HIV-positive (UNAIDS, 1998, p. 1). Taxing low-income countries with health care systems inadequate to handle the burden of non-AIDS related illnesses, AIDS has devastated many of the sub-Saharan African economies. The impact of AIDS on the region is such that it is now affecting demographics - changing mortality and fertility rates, reducing lifespan, and ultimately affecting population growth. Although Africa is the region of the world hardest hit by AIDS,...