It persists, he added, in about 30 countries. Each year about 2,000 new polio cases are reported, as compared with 7,000 or 8,000 cases only five years ago. In the southern part of the continent, more than 20 percent of the population is infected, he said. Nine million African children have been orphaned by the disease, he said, and their numbers are still rising. The economic impact on countries is very serious.
Poverty is accentuated.
That, he added, compromises the countries' ability to afford medicines for treatment and condoms to prevent the spread of the virus. AIDS also accentuates poverty by reducing life expectancies, he said. In some parts of Africa the life expectancy is down to 40 years, he said, curtailing people's working lives by two decades or more. Aside from the AIDS pandemic, Dr. Samba said he is most concerned about malaria and tuberculosis. He noted that malaria kills one million people each year and tuberculosis not only increases poverty but also affects literacy and increases the likelihood of civil strife.