on october 29, 2009, south african president jacob zuma delivered a landmark speech to the national council of provinces revealing new strategies to accelerate access towards universal access to hiv prevention, treatment, care and support in his country which has the largest number of people living with hiv. below is an excerpt from his speech which gave some sobering statistics regarding the current state of hiv and aids in south africa. at the bottom of this excerpt is a link to his entire speech...i encourage you to read it and understand better what life is like in south africa.
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Recent statistics from the Department of Health, Human Sciences Research Council, Medical Research Council, Statistics SA and other sources paint a disturbing picture of the health of our nation. They show that nearly 6 out 10 deaths in our country in 2006 were deaths of people younger than 50 years. If we consider mortality trends over the last decade, we see that the age at which people die has been changing dramatically. More and more people are dying young, threatening even to outnumber in proportional terms those who die in old age.
Honourable Members, South Africans are dying at an increasing rate. The number of deaths registered in 2008 jumped to 756,000, up from 573,000 the year before. At this rate, there is a real danger that the number of deaths will soon overtake the number of births. The births registered during this period were one million two hundred and five thousand one hundred and eleven (1,205,111). The Independent Electoral Commission had to remove 396,336 deceased voters from the Voters Roll during September last year and August this year.
What is even more disturbing is the number of young women who are dying in the prime of their life, in their child-bearing years. In 2006, life expectancy at birth for South African men was estimated to be 51 years. By contrast, life expectancy in Algeria was 70 years and 60 years in Senegal. These are some of the chilling statistics that demonstrate the devastating impact that HIV and AIDS is having on our nation.
Not even the youngest are spared. Some studies suggest that 57% of the deaths of children under the age of five during 2007 were as a result of HIV. This situation is aggravated by the high tuberculosis prevalence. The co-infection rate between HIV and TB has now reached a staggering 73%. Statistics indicate that the numbers of citizens with TB number at 481,584. These statistics do not, however, fully reveal the human toll of the disease (emphasis added). It is necessary to go into the hospitals, clinics and hospices of our country to see the effects of HIV and AIDS on those who should be in the prime of their lives.
It is necessary to go into people’s homes to see how families struggle with the triple burden of poverty, disease and stigma. Wherever you go across the country, you hear people lament the apparent frequency with which they have to bury family members and friends.
Let me emphasize that although we have a comprehensive strategy to tackle HIV and
AIDS that has been acknowledged internationally, and though we have the largest anti-retroviral programme in the world, we are not yet winning this battle. We must come to terms with this reality as South Africans.
click here to read the full speech delivered by president zuma.
sobonana...
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