On Tue, 2004-10-05 at 08:01, Calle Hedberg wrote: > Otherwise, I've just read the last annual HIV prevalence survey (survey in > November 2003) for pregnant women: On average 27.5% for South Africa, with > provincial rates ranging from about 13% to 37%.
Not the first time I've seen such figures, but I am nevertheless dumbstruck by the size of the tragedy and enormity of the task ahead each time I am confronted with these data. This web site also helps to put things in perspective: http://costofwar.com/index-aids.html (the cost of Australia's direct participation in the Iraq war is thought to be about AUD$500 million over an 18 month period - a small proportion of the US cost, but nevertheless 25% of the total annual Australian foreign aid budget - which itself is way too small at just 0.25% of GDP). > Add to that the fact that > UK, Canada, Australia and other countries systematically poach doctors and > nurses from SA (we have over 30,000 vacant nurse positions now) - the impact > on workload should be obvious. Yes, and it is a totally unconscionable trade in human resources. It's okay for rich countries to fight amongst themselves for trained health staff, but plain wrong for them to actively drain such resources from countries with enormous needs. Just another aspect of the enormous rich/poor imbalance in the world. -- Tim C PGP/GnuPG Key 1024D/EAF993D0 available from keyservers everywhere or at http://members.optushome.com.au/tchur/pubkey.asc Key fingerprint = 8C22 BF76 33BA B3B5 1D5B EB37 7891 46A9 EAF9 93D0
