Introduction
With 5 billion people on earth, discussing human health is no simple matter. Most diseases are regional, affecting only people in a certain area of the planet. But the world's biggest health threats affect so many people across the planet that they are global in scope. AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and malaria are the world's greatest killers. In the year 2000, approximately 3 million people died of AIDS. That same year, TB claimed 1.7 million lives and malaria killed one million people.
AIDS is a disease that we are familiar with in North America. While prevention campaigns have helped to slow the spread of HIV in Canada, AIDS is an epidemic in many poor countries. Of the 40 million people infected with HIV worldwide, 95% live in developing countries.
While AIDS is a new disease, TB is one of the oldest. For centuries, TB was viewed as a plague that carried away the young and talented members of society. Until medication was developed in the 1940's, TB was the leading cause of death in the US. Today, TB continues to claim about 2 million lives a year in regions where affordable treatment programs aren't in place.
Unlike AIDS and TB, malaria is a disease that is exclusive to southern countries. More than 41% of the world's population is at risk of aquiring malaria, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. Though malaria is treatable with medication, in Africa the medicine costs more than most people can afford. Three thousand Africans die from malaria every day-most of them children. (stat1)
These statistics can be numbing, but what do they actually mean for people who live in Africa? Click here to read about a West African family that faces all three of these health threats.
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