Aids In Africa

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AIDS in Zimbabwe
Africa is dying. Once the cradle of civilization, the African continent is now ravaged by AIDS, and an entire generation is threatened with extinction. In Zimbabwe, an estimated 20 to 25 percent of adults are infected with AIDS and an increasing number of children, many already orphaned by the disease, are infected too. Those who have escaped AIDS so far face an uncertain future in a country where knowledge and culture are dying along with the people.


Zimbabwe struggles against Aids onslaught

The disaster in Zimbabwe is far worse than anyone expected

By Evan Davis, BBC television's Newsnight economics correspondent, in Zimbabwe
I thought I already knew all I needed to about the impact of HIV and AIDS in Africa.





Watch the Newsnight report by Evan Davis

Certainly I knew it was a human catastrophe, that the virus was running through populations on a scale unknown in the West, in an area of the world ill-equipped to cope.
But it was only when a British businessman with extensive experience in Zimbabwe described to me some of the practical effects the illness is having on society there, that I decided I should find out more.



Living in the shadow of Aids
Zimbabwe now has the dubious honour of being the world's most infected country - about a quarter of the adult population is HIV positive. In many urban areas, infection runs to 40%. In the army, it is more like 80%.
Life expectancy at birth, on one estimate, is poised to fall to 38 years. The country suffers from having an economy advanced enough for the virus to spread, in particular, on relatively good roads - epidemiologists have tracked high HIV prevalence along the main freight routes.
Alas, the economy may be strong enough to help HIV, but it is not strong enough to fight it. Zimbabweans cannot get modern anti-retroviral drug combinations because in Zimbabwe, the annual health budget is about £5.50 per person, enough t...