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| Regional poverty analysis > April 2001 |
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Communicable diseases and poverty in Southern Africa - Dr Mark Colvin & Dr Brian Sharp
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| 1. Introduction |
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From the time that early humans first roamed the planet they have been beset
by endemic and epidemic infectious diseases. It is only in the last 200 years
that humankind has managed to effect a degree of control over these diseases,
first with public health measures such as improved sanitation, water supply
and the provision of safe food and, more recently, with effective
antimicrobial drugs. So successful were these measures against infectious
diseases that, in the industrialised world at least, it was believed that
the battle was largely over and it was just a matter of time until they
would be eradicated. The advent of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s dispensed with
that notion and the field of "newly emerging infections" is rapidly developing
as the industrialised world realises that it is not immune to the impacts of
infectious diseases.
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Of course, in the developing world infectious diseases such as malaria,
TB, diarrhoea and lung infections have remained important causes of morbidity
and mortality. Today, these same countries are bearing the brunt of the
burden of these "old" diseases as well as having the highest case loads
of new diseases such as HIV/AIDS. This paper discusses the impact that
the two major communicable diseases in the Southern African region, i.e.
HIV/AIDS and malaria, are having on human and economic development.
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