The United Nations AIDS organization
released disturbing estimates
Thursday of the
seemingly relentless expansion of the HIV pandemic.
At a time when many Americans are
increasingly optimistic that
state-of-the-art
drug therapy might eliminate the virus, HIV is taking a
heavy toll
worldwide.
According to the agency, every minute of
every day somewhere in the
world, six people
become infected with HIV: 7,500 adults per day and
1,000 children.
About 30 million people have acquired the virus during the
last 15 years;
6.4 million of them have died of AIDS.
Behind this mounting death count are the
signs of growing social
disruption. For
example, in sub-Saharan Africa, more than 1 million
children have
lost their parents to AIDS. And within four years, there will
be more than 2
million AIDS orphans in the following seven countries
combined:
Dominican Republic, Kenya, Rwanda, Thailand, Uganda, the
United States,
and Zambia.
Illness and death among young adults due to
HIV have reached such
proportions in
some countries that overall national economics and
productivity are
affected. In Uganda, for example, 44 percent of all
premature deaths
are attributable to AIDS. In terms of years of labor
productivity,
AIDS is responsible for more than 66 percent of Uganda's
economically
significant losses.
The virus is also spreading into new areas.
For example:
-During the last three years, HIV-infection
rates among Vietnamese
prostitutes
jumped from 9 percent to 38 percent.
-Infection rates among blood donors in the
Cambodian capital of Phnom
Penh have soared
from 0.1 percent to more than 10 percent.
-In the Ukrainian Black Sea port of
Nikolayev, HIV-infection rates
among narcotics
users exploded in 1995, jumping from a 1.7 percent in
January to 56.5
percent in November.
-South Africa, long spared, is now being
overrun. Tests of pregnant
women in the
province of Kwazulu/Natal show a jump from 9.6 percent to
18 percent.
In my opinion, I think that all the
scientists of the world should get
together and try
to devise a cure for HIV and AIDS. It may take time, and it
may take money;
but I think it is worth it in order to save mankind from
extinction and
total annihilation.
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