In South Africa there are 950 AIDS-related deaths every day

The South African Burden of Disease study has shown that HIV/AIDS is the cause of almost 40% of premature mortality, measured as years of life lost, in the year 2000 and, with no intervention strategies, will account for 75% of premature mortality by 2010.

SHOOT: Worse than all these statistics is that you have to hunt for them on the internet. And even worse, you have flags flying at half mast for the alcoholic health minister who advocated - essentially, denial and doing nothing.

clipped from www.mrc.ac.za Figure 1. Estimated prevalence of HIV by sex and age in 2006, ASSA2003 Figure 2. Projected number of newly infected people by sex and age group, ASSA2003 Deaths from AIDS have been increasing from the late 1990s. It is estimated that in 2006 around 740 000 deaths occurred, of which 350 000 were due to AIDS (approximately 950 AIDS-related deaths per day). This mortality has resulted in an increasing number of children who are orphaned. The number of maternal orphans who are under 18 years of age is estimated to be over 1.5 million 2006 and two thirds are as a result of AIDS. The demographic impact of HIV/AIDS on the South African population is apparent in statistics such as life expectancy, which has dropped from 63 in 1990 to 51 in 2006, and in the under-5 mortality rate, which has increased from 65 deaths per 1000 births in 1990 to 75 deaths per 1000 births in 2006. mortality rates in 2006 suggest that 15-year olds have a 56% chance of dying before they reach 60.