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NEWS > HEALTH > NEW NUMBERS SHOW AIDS HARD HIT BY RECESSION
NEW NUMBERS SHOW AIDS HARD HIT BY RECESSION
December 11 2009
Shanghai, China – The recession has spared no one. Even in the fastest growing economy on the planet, the economic downturn has created significant logjams to growth. The reduction in buying power has hit virtually every country in some shape 
or form and, even as the dollars start to flow again, some of the effects of the downturn are still showing themselves. It is perhaps fitting then that the United Nations and the World Health Organization chose the largest city in China to give their latest numbers on the spread of HIV and AIDS.
The AIDs epidemic has, like the recession, touched every corner of the globe. Poorer countries, particularly those in Africa, have been ravaged by the disease since it first started to spread widely in the late 1970’s. With a little over 33 million infections in the world, new data suggests that the disease has peaked and is remaining mostly stable. Part of that is a result of increased awareness and new drugs but of the slowing is being blamed on the economic slowdown. Decreased travel and an erosion in dollars being spent on sex have caused dramatic drops in infection rates in many countries resulting in the overall decline.
“There are a number of variables that have contributed to this stabilization but the recent economic downturn has been a big player. Aside from the reduction in the number of new infections that reduced spending creates, more people are dying because of poor treatment which forces the numbers down. This would not have been possible if the economy had stayed healthy,” said a WHO spokesperson. “This is particularly true in poorer countries which, though they have fallen a lot less than wealthy countries, feel the pinch much more significantly. Simply put there aren’t enough dollars in the coffers to pay for proper medical care for healthy people never mind those with fatal diseases. This has had a huge impact on the global numbers.”
Africa still has the highest number of infected but that is expected to change if the economy does not improve quickly.
“Another factor is the opportunity this provides many of the governments throughout Africa to simply eliminate the problem. It has been a source of great embarrassment for many of the oligarchs in the country that they have not been able to get a handle on the problem. Despite how others view them, they see themselves on par with bigger and more important countries and this epidemic has put a kink in those fantasies,” said Scrape TV International analyst Gustav Hander. “By using the general decline in funding and interest they can simply let a lot of those problems kind of die off, so to speak, and start off with a clean slate. That almost active degradation of the infected population has no doubt contributed to the stabilization of the global numbers.”
African nations still account for 72 per cent of AIDS related deaths, a number that’s expected to increase as more and more countries shed their infected.
“In some ways it might be the best thing. Even if these people are able to survive for a little while, even a long time, eventually they are going to die. In the west, AIDS is more of chronic ailment but ultimately the infected people are going to die someday. Whether it’s a car crash, cancer, or just old age they aren’t going to dodge death forever just because they got away with this one so if you’re sick it might be better to just end it sooner rather than later,” continued Hander. “That would also remove much of the burden from over worked volunteers and doctors who could be spending their efforts and money on more important and disgusting diseases.”
Lauren Hebert, Health Correspondent
NEWS > HEALTH > NEW NUMBERS SHOW AIDS HARD HIT BY RECESSION
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