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AIDS Could Become No. 1 Infectious Killer by 2020
If the current trend in developing countries continues, AIDS could be the number one infectious cause of death worldwide by the year 2020.
By GSReport
Start Date: 2/25/99
A report from Newslink Africa, dated February 15, 1999, says that the rate of AIDS infection and death in developing countries could grow to the point that AIDS will be the number one infectious cause of death worldwide by the year 2020.
According to the report, an estimated 33.4 million people are currently infected with AIDS/HIV, including 1.3 million children. An estimated 13.9 million people have died of the disease since the epidemic was first identified in the early 1980s; 3.2 million of those deaths were children. In 1998, 2.5 million people died of AIDS.
In addition, some 30 percent of all tuberculosis deaths are due to HIV/AIDS infections, Newslink Africa states. If those deaths are counted, AIDS in 2020 will be the single largest cause of adult death from infectious disease.
AIDS is spreading fastest in the developing world. In Botswana, Africa, 25 percent of all adults now test HIV-positive, according to the report. In Zimbabwe and Namibia, the rate is 20 percent; Zambia is 19 percent, Swaziland 18 percent. In several other African countries, the rate is 10 percent or more.
Because of social and economic inequalities, women in developing countries are the most vulnerable to AIDS infection. In Africa, women under age 25 have the fastest-rising infection rate, the report says. [GSReport thanks Diana Cammack for sending this information.]
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