Some 400 to 500 people are newly infected each day. In 1993 alone, it is estimated that between 40,000 and 50,000 Zambians died of AIDS-related causes. The number of annual AIDS-related deaths is likely to double by 1997. The health and survival of women and children in Zambia has deteriorated in the past 15 years. Mortality among children under age five in Zambia increased 15 percent over the past 15 years.
Hospital admissions caused by maternal complications also show an increase.
Since 1990, pregnancy-related complications resulting in hospital admissions have been second only to those caused by malaria. Although data are lacking, it may also have contributed to the increase in maternal complications by weakening women s immune systems. HIV prevalence is much higher in urban than in rural areas, yet children in rural areas face a 33 percent higher risk than urban children of dying before their fifth birthday. Other factors, such as malnutrition, lack of access to clean water, and the inability to control fertility resulting in large families and short intervals between births, also contribute significantly to these alarming trends. During infancy, children in Zambia born less than two years after a previous birth are three times more likely to die than babies born four or more years after the previous birth.