bluefin
08-24-2005, 05:06 AM
Epidemic diseases exact a huge toll in human suffering and lost opportunities for development. Poverty, armed conflict, and natural disasters contribute to the spread of disease and are made worse by it.
In Africa the spread of HIV/AIDS has reversed decades of improvements in life expectancy and left millions of children orphaned. It is draining the supply of teachers and eroding the quality of education.
There are 300–500 million cases of malaria each year, leading to more than 1 million deaths. Nearly all the cases (almost 90 percent) occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, and most deaths from malaria are among children younger than five years old.
Tuberculosis kills some 2 million people a year, most of them 15–45 years old. The disease is spreading more rapidly because of the emergence of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis; the spread of HIV/AIDS, which reduces resistance to tuber-culosis; and the growing number of refugees and displaced people.
In Africa the spread of HIV/AIDS has reversed decades of improvements in life expectancy and left millions of children orphaned. It is draining the supply of teachers and eroding the quality of education.
There are 300–500 million cases of malaria each year, leading to more than 1 million deaths. Nearly all the cases (almost 90 percent) occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, and most deaths from malaria are among children younger than five years old.
Tuberculosis kills some 2 million people a year, most of them 15–45 years old. The disease is spreading more rapidly because of the emergence of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis; the spread of HIV/AIDS, which reduces resistance to tuber-culosis; and the growing number of refugees and displaced people.