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Surpassing the Black Death

The day passed in Australia with little recognition - but yesterday was World Aids Day. Australia may be "travelling" reasonably well in relation to AIDS, but on our doorstep Papua New Guinea is one of the worst areas in ther world for AIDS. On current estimates 40% of the population will not be alive for the work-force in 2020.

The Independent reports on the significance and importance of understanding AIDS:

"Today is World Aids Day. It was first marked in 1991, an attempt by the international community to alert humanity to the terrible scale of the threat posed by the disease.

Yet despite advances in medical science and a growing political consensus over the need to act, the epidemic shows no signs of abating. In fact, it is getting worse.

According to the United Nations, some 25 million people have already died from Aids. A further 40 million men, women and children are living with HIV. Since the turn of the millennium, 24.2 million people have been infected, 15.6 million have died.

If the world continues on its present course, Aids is set to surpass the Black Death of the 14th century as the deadliest outbreak of disease in human history."

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