AIDS destroyer of Africa, destroyer of dreams

• Twenty-two million people in Africa have HIV, representing 2/3 of the total infected population of the world.
• Seventy-five percent of the world's AIDS-related deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• The main mode of HIV/AIDS transmission in Africa is heterosexual intercourse. The second-most common mode of transmission is from mother to child, either during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
• Many Swazi communities have been destroyed by the AIDS epidemic. Swaziland has been affected most by the HIV epidemic. The country has a 38.8 percent adult infection rate and a life expectancy of only 39 years.
• In Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, current estimates show over 1 person in 5 between the ages of 15 and 49 is living with HIV or AIDS.
• Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, 83% of the deaths have been in Africa.
• At least 95% of all AIDS orphans have been African.
• In 1998 wars in Africa killed 200,000 people. AIDS killed 2 million on the continent.
• As infection rises in the general population, so does the likelihood of encountering an infected partner early in one's sexual career.
• In Africa, especially Southern Africa the average life expectancy is only 48 years; this being largely because of the AIDs epedimic. In 2005 the world suffered around 3 million deaths because of AIDs, out of those 3 million an estimated one third were in Sub-Saharan Africa. The cause of this has to do largely with lack of education on the subject, and lack of prevention methods coupled with hard to find quality treatment.

SOURCES (These are not my words.  I cut and pasted the facts & figures directly from the sources listed above.)

• http://cesa.imb.org/aidsinafrica/facts_on_aids.htm
• http://www.ehow.com/facts_5467396_bullet-point-aids-africa.html
• http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/388297/the_sad_facts_about_aids_in_africa.html?cat=47