Not so good... in Africa

In Africa the news are not so good at all. An article by Cindy Shiner from the site allafrica.com is telling the problems with numbers and things seems really difficalt.

"Sub-Saharan Africa is struggling with the world's greatest health problems today, with malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS the biggest challenges. Yet financial constraints, poor infrastructure and a lack of skilled health care workers make it the region least equipped to deal with them.
The World Bank says that by 2006 an estimated 24.5 million people in Africa were living with HIV – 64 percent of the world's total. The epidemic is reversing gains in life expectancy, hurting productivity and poverty-reduction efforts, and decimating workforces.
Africa accounts for more than one quarter of the world's TB cases, although it has only 11 percent of the globe's population. The disease claims more than 500,000 African lives each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Malaria exacts an even greater toll, claiming 90 percent of the one million deaths per year from the disease and incapacitating millions more.
Although these are the most dramatic health threats, others abound. They include parasitic and respiratory illnesses, tropical diseases, annual meningitis epidemics and high rates of maternal mortality.

Eroding productivity

Not only are large amounts having to be spent on fighting illness, the diseases and their human toll also hit productivity. The WHO says malaria alone causes an average loss of 1.3 percent annual economic growth in the worst-affected countries.
AIDS strikes individuals in their most productive years from ages 15 to 49, trapping them in a downward spiral of poverty. They often cannot afford treatment, have limited access to healthcare and miss work. Once they die, older family members are often forced to give up work to stay home to care for children left orphaned.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that by 2010, Aids will reduce the labor force in 35 of sub-Saharan Africa's countries by nine percent. As a result, the average worker will be younger and less educated.
In the private sector, at the same time as the number of consumers is dwindling, Aids is pushing up labor costs. Companies face rising fees for health insurance, sick leave and funeral benefits, according to the Global Business Coalition on HIV/Aids, TB and Malaria (GBC). They also have to bear the costs of recruiting and training new staff."

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