"" (Frank Vogl of Transparency International) .
Currently, approximately 34.3 million people have AIDS worldwide, 24.5 million of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. All together, about 19 million people have died from AIDS, 3.8 million of them were under the age of 15. Here are some of the staggering statistics:.
5.4 million new AIDS infections took place in 1999, 4 million of them in Africa. .
2.8 million died of AIDS in 1999, 85 percent of them in Africa. .
13.2 million children were orphaned due to AIDS, 12.1 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa. .
Reduced life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa from 59 years to 45 between 2005 and 2010, and in Zimbabwe from 61 to 33. .
More than 500,000 babies infected in 1999 by their mothers - the majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa. .
80% of those dying from AIDS are between the ages of 20 and 50, the prime working years for most people. .
Another very depressing figure is that by the year 2010, a projected 40 million children will be orphans. This will hurt the Global Economy. And this could perhaps eventually lead to an entire continent with no guidance or structure. It is almost a circle of never-ending problems. .
Just to give some perspective, the bubonic plague killed approximately 30 million people in Europe. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by the year 2010, 71 million sub-Saharan Africans died from AIDS. .
AIDS is the most serious in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Swaziland. In these countries, a total of about 1700 people turn HIV positive daily. Most African governments are mobilizing and trying their best to do what they can in terms of keeping the outbreak in control. However, there isn't that much that they can do. .
A big problem for African countries is their lack of money and resources to pay for the expensive drug regimen that slows the disease. Africans need these drugs desperately; yet they have little money to conduct research or pay for currently available drugs.