The US is spending literally billions of dollars on the Iraq War. Australia and the UK are also committed to a huge cost because of their involvement in a War which is, daily, being shown to have been folly at its worst.
It therefore disheartening and shocking to read this in the LA Times - knowing that money wisely "spent" might have been able to avert, or at least minimise, such a crisis:
"In 1990, nine years after the AIDS virus was identified, the map showing the worldwide spread of the disease displayed most of Africa in the palest pink. The infection rate among adults was less than 1%. Since then, the colors have deepened faster here than anywhere else on Earth. Southern Africa now is colored a bloody crimson. The infection rate is more than 15%.
The statistics have been repeated so often they cease to shock, even as they soar: 25 million people have died worldwide. Forty million are living with HIV, the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and as many as 14.5 million children have been orphaned by the disease, according to UNAIDS.
The United Nations Development Program said last year that AIDS had caused the biggest reversal in human development ever recorded."
The stats are even more frightening:
25 million: Death toll from AIDS worldwide
24.5 million: Sub-Saharan Africans living with HIV
15% to 34%: AIDS infection rate in southern Africa
12 million: Sub-Saharan Africans orphaned by AIDS
It therefore disheartening and shocking to read this in the LA Times - knowing that money wisely "spent" might have been able to avert, or at least minimise, such a crisis:
"In 1990, nine years after the AIDS virus was identified, the map showing the worldwide spread of the disease displayed most of Africa in the palest pink. The infection rate among adults was less than 1%. Since then, the colors have deepened faster here than anywhere else on Earth. Southern Africa now is colored a bloody crimson. The infection rate is more than 15%.
The statistics have been repeated so often they cease to shock, even as they soar: 25 million people have died worldwide. Forty million are living with HIV, the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and as many as 14.5 million children have been orphaned by the disease, according to UNAIDS.
The United Nations Development Program said last year that AIDS had caused the biggest reversal in human development ever recorded."
The stats are even more frightening:
25 million: Death toll from AIDS worldwide
24.5 million: Sub-Saharan Africans living with HIV
15% to 34%: AIDS infection rate in southern Africa
12 million: Sub-Saharan Africans orphaned by AIDS
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