Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 6 Dec 1995
The National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Science, painted a grim picture of the AIDS epidemic in parts of sub-Saharan Africa where life expectancy rates could drop drastically in a few years.
It portrayed the disease there as a "slow plague," where some 11 million adults and one million children have the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that leads to the deadly AIDS disease.
The extent of the disease was dramatized in the report's statistics that showed that by 2010, AIDS will have lowered the average life expectancy in Zambia from 66 to 33 years.
In Zimbabwe, the life expectancy by the year 2010 could drop from 70 to 40 years, from 68 to 40 years in Kenya and from 59 to 31 years in Uganda.
"Perhaps the most important argument for immediate action to slow the further spread of HIV is that in many parts of the region, the epidemic has not yet peaked -- not only is it bad, but it is getting worse," the report said.
The council urged more research to revitalize programs to fight the disease and prevent it by changing human behavior patterns researchers said were the roots of the epidemic.
Most of the research into the disease has been to find a medical cure for AIDS and more must be done for prevention through changing sexual behaviors, researchers suggested.
People in these areas are infected with virus primarily through heterosexual acts, with about 20 percent through homosexual activity in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the researchers.
The most affected parts of Africa were in an area stretching from Uganda and Kenya south to include Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, the report said.
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