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Health
"Africa is where most diseases get their start in life. The continent acts as a kind of development academy for virulent infections. They practice wiping out entire communities there before venturing out into the big wide world. Even old favourites like anthrax, eradicated everywhere else in the world, keep making comebacks in Africa. - Peter Moore, Swahili for the Broken-Hearted, p. 6.
Health concerns in Africa are enormous:
- Of the seven million children worldwide who die before they reach the age of five, two thirds are in Africa
- 140m of Africa's population or 35% suffer from hunger on a daily basis
- Between 30 and 40m Africas are in danger of starving to death
- 10,000 children die every day in Africa from malnutrition and lack of daily health care
Why?
- Malnutrition and hunger
- Lack of clean water and sanitation (allegedly one of the biggest killers)
- Lack of adequate medical facilities including clinincs, staff and medicines
- Serious Diseases: The three biggest diseases in Africa are HIV/Aids (28 million people are infected and 81% of the world's AIDS-related deaths occur here), Malaria (1 million die annually) and Tuberculosis (TB). There are also Hepatitis A and B, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, Rabies, Japanese encephalitis, Bilhazaria and Meningitis A, C, W, V (to name but a few).
- Treatable Diseases: every day: smallpox, chickenpox, measles, diarrhoea etc.
- 'Antique' Diseases: Cholera, Polio and Leprosy are diseases of bye-gone times as far as we in the West are concerned. Polio will soon have been eradicated and clean water is all that is needed to prevent Cholera but these diseases continue to kill in Africa
- Other Diseases: Trachoma, Glaucoma etc. have catastrophic effects on local communities and economies
Related Links
Online Newshour: Aids in Africa
TIME: Aids in Africa
CNN: Aids - Africa in Peril
The Village Voice: Aids
Aids: A Threat to Rural Africa
Women, Girls and HIV and AIDS
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