Death Strikes A Continent - Aides In Africa

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ECN 400 1 Death Strikes a Continent: Aides in Africa June 15, 2001 Karen Darby University College Northwood University ECN 400 2 Death Strikes a Continent: Aides in Africa Imagine having four children you love dearly. One is an infant and is already doomed to die, the others will not live to see age 30, and your chances of seeing them grow to even the age of 20 is slim to none. You risk your life each time you have sexual intercourse. You watch your neighbor being tossed into the streets and labeled a whore because she asked her husband to wear a condom. You witness the critically ill people without a doctor or medicine or food or clothing. You spend your spare time attending funerals of friends and relatives while your popular and political leaders act as if nothing is happening. In Africa, this nightmare is real.

AIDS is an epidemic sweeping throughout Africa causing sickness, orphanage, economical woes and death.

According to estimates from UNAIDS, (five U.N. agencies), 34.3 million people in the world have AIDS, 24.4 million of them are in Africa, and nearly 19 million have died with 3.8 million being children under the age of fifteen. There are four million new cases each year. In Africa one in every ten people has AIDS, More than one-quarter of working-age adults are infected with HIV. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that AIDS deaths and the loss of future population from the deaths of women of child-bearing age means that by 2010, sub-Saharan Africa will have 71 million fewer people than it would otherwise. Some Countries have lost 10-20 years of live expectancy because of this single disease. A positive test for HIV in Africa is a death sentence. Some factors contributing to the spread of AIDS include...