Worldwatch Briefing on HIV in South Africa

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

These are some new statistics on the HIV infection rates in South
Africa.  No mention in article of trade disputes.

Jamie


http://www.worldwatch.org/alerts/990607.html

--------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 7, 1999 

                                                                               
Vital Signs Brief 99-4
                                                                             
MBEKI'S CHALLENGE: THE HIV EPIDEMIC CONSUMING SOUTH AFRICA

 [snip]

The HIV infection rate among adults in South Africa stands at 22
percent, according to the latest estimates. Barring a medical miracle,
one out of every five adults will die within the next decade. Such a
massive loss of life will destabilize the country in unimaginable ways,
threatening the exciting, hard-won social gains made in the young
post-apartheid era. 

South Africa has one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the world.
The 22 percent infection rate-based on antenatal clinic surveys in April
of 1999-represents a jump of more than half over the 14 percent estimate
from late 1997. Infection levels are even higher in smaller, neighboring
countries, but South Africa, with its total population of 43 million, is
the first large nation where the disease has spun out of control.

   [snip] 

The virus is poised to decimate South Africa's working-age population:
the fathers and mothers who support families, the agronomists,
engineers, and teachers who form the cornerstone of the national
development effort. In the predominantly black and largely impoverished
province of Kwazulu-Natal, one in three adults is thought to be
infected. At the University of Durban-Westville in Kwazulu-Natal, 25
percent of the student body recently tested positive for HIV-a dismal
prospect for the nation's best and brightest. 

  [snip]

-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
I can be reached at love@cptech.org, by telephone 202.387.8030,
by fax at 202.234.5176. CPT web page is http://www.cptech.org