AIDS Crisis in Africa.
Using computer technology to study the structure of HIV, scientists have determined that HIV originated around 1930 in rural areas of Central Africa, where the virus may have been present for many years in isolated communities. The virus provably did not spread because members of these rural communities had limited contact with people from other areas. But in the1960s and 1970s, political upheaval, wars, drought, and famine forced many people from these rural areas to migrate to cities to find jobs. During this time the incidence of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV infections, developed into a worldwide epidemic. .
While cases of AIDS have been reported in every nation of the world, the disease affects some countries more than others. More that 95 percent of all HIV-infected people live in the Less Developed Countries. In these areas, the disease has sapped the populations of young men and women who form the foundation of labor force. Most die while in the peak of their reproductive years. Moreover, the epidemic has overwhelmed health-care systems, increased the number of orphans, and caused life expectancy rates to plummet. These problems have reached crisis proportions in some parts of the world already burdened by war, political upheaval, or unrelenting poverty.
Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of Aids cases far exceeds that of all other geographic regions. Of the estimated 14,000 HIV infections that occur each day worldwide, about half of these infections occur in sub-Saharan Africa. About 70 percent of all people infected with HIV live in this region. In some countries in the southern part of the continent, including Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Simbabwe, more than 30 percent of the population has HIV infection or AIDS.
In South Africa 30% of all children, and 50% of adult patients in a leading hospitals are HIV positive.
