http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org/earth/human-conditions.php
Percentage of population aged 15 – 49 living wth HIV
(does not include 2.2 million children under 15 living with HIV)
“In sub-Saharan Africa an estimated 25 million people are infected with HIV — almost 2/3 of all people living with HIV. [In 2004] 2.2 million died (75% of the 3 million deaths globally)… The number of people living with HIV in East Asia rose by almost 50% between 2002 and 2004, an increase that is attributable largely to China’s swiftly growing epidemic.” – UNAIDS
There’s a gut-wrenching picture to start my morning. Stats like that are enough to make me listen to the tinfoil-beanie crowd, who claim a lot of th industrial world’s inertia in dealing with the AIDS crisis stems from the colour of the victims’ skin. It’ll be interesting to gauge the US statistics in a couple of years; Let’s see the result of 8 years of abstinence policies, pushed by the Bush administration to the detriment of safe sex teachings. In the meantime, shame on the governments of the world (with extra-super-huge boos to the US and the Vatican) for failing to push intelligent agendas or hassle the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies to step in, or even lower their profit margins.