| Geneva (Fides Service) - The World Health Organisation WHO warns of a growing gap between health conditions in poor countries and the rest of the world. While people live longer in most of the world, in Sub-Saharan Africa devastated by AIDS the adult mortality rate has risen compared to thirty years ago. The 194 page World Health Report on World Health, ranges from life expectancy rates to road accident deaths, from the struggle against Polio to the tragedy of AIDS.
In 14 African countries the infant mortality rate is higher than it was in 1990 and in some countries, Sierra Leone for example, 300 out of every 1000 children die before they are five years old. Out of 57 million premature deaths in 2002, 10.5 million were children under 5 of whom 98% living in developing countries. In Zimbabwe, average life expectancy for both sexes is 37.9 years; in Zambia 39.7, in Angola 39.9 compared to 80.6 years in Switzerland, 80.4 in Sweden and 79.7 in France. A new born baby in Japan can expect to live to 85 whereas every new born child in Sierra Leone will probably die before the age of 36.
According to WHO a growing cause of deaths among people between the ages of 15 and 59 years is AIDS which drastically diminishes life expectancy in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Deaths caused by the deadly virus and its complications are double the figure of those due to another killer heart disease and the third worst most lethal infection TB. Tobacco kills 5 million people every year: in 2002, more than 1.2 million people died of lung cancer, mainly caused by smoking, a pathology which has increased by 30% since 1990; and three out of four deaths are among men. (AP) (19/12/2003 Fides Service; lines:26 words:342)
|
Precedente 