1) Thirty-four million people living in sub-Sahara Africa have been infected with HIV.

2) Eleven and a half million of these people have already died.

3) One quarter of this 11.5 million were children under the age of 15.

4) Seven out of every ten newly infected HIV cases reside in sub-Sahara Africa.

5) Nine out of every ten children under the age of 15 are infected with HIV.

6) Of all historic AIDS deaths, 83% have come from Africa.

7) 95% of all AIDS orphans live in Africa.

8) 70% of the world’s AIDS cases reside in Africa while only 10% of the world’s population resides in Africa.

Aids will of course affect the health section of the African economy. It will increase the number of people seeking medical care, and of course this type of medical care is much more expensive than normal. Each of these governments must face decisions about three things in their health care systems. They will have to choose to treat AIDS or use this money to prevent HIV infection. They will have to choose between treating AIDS versus treating other illnesses (malaria is still the most prominent cause of death in most African countries). They will also have to decide whether they want to spend the money they have on maintaining health, or for other objective such as research, improvement of technological medical advancements, etc.

Agriculture accounts for 83% of employment (Europa World Book, 1999) in Uganda, and just fewer than 74% in Senegal. The cash crops of each country of are of course different (Uganda benefits from the export of coffee and bananas while Senegal benefits from groundnuts and cotton.) but the effect of Aids on the agricultural section of the economy is the same. Aids will cause loss of labor supply on farms. The loss of a few workers at crucial periods in planting and harvesting can seriously reduce the size of the harvest. Because of the loss of labor countries are forced to switch to less-labor-intensive crops which mean switching from exporting cash crops to simply producing food crops that will provide some source of nutrition for families. From research done in Ugandan villages in 1999 we find that the country was switching from producing coffee and bananas to exporting cassava and sweet potatoes. This switch was due to labor shortages. Households in these regions also switched from raising livestock to raising pigs, which is much less labor intensive. (FAO study, 1999). In another FAO study (1999) we find that households in which the male had died of AIDS were forced to increase the amount of labor hours in each day by an average of 3 (hours), and also decrease the amount of land under cultivation.

The loss of skilled labor as well as managerial expertise and experienced workers due to HIV/AIDS has had an impact on businesses in Uganda, Senegal and South Africa. In Uganda, a banking institution in Kampala had five senior staff members die of AIDS in one year. “Between 1989-93, out of 250 government officials sent abroad for further studies on government sponsorship, 10 died of AIDS related deaths.” (www.Policy Project.com). This represents a substantial loss to of investment by the government in “human capital.” Furthermore, many of the businesses in Africa provide their workers with full health care coverage, funeral expenses, and a retirement plan to all employees, and we find th

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