HIV/AIDS Awareness

Data can drive programs, decisions, push money in the right direction,
move hearts and minds. So in that spirit, here is a fascinating web
site called Global Health Facts, which compiles data from the UN and
from individual country reports, and maps and ranks it for meaningful
thought: http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/topic.jsp?i=6. This
particular link takes you to children living with HIV/AIDS. I was a
bit surprised to realize that Uganda ranks fourth among the over 200
countries and territories of the world in absolute number of kids with
HIV. The adult prevalence is higher in southern Africa, but the sheer
number of infected kids centers here, right where we are. There are
lists and maps and numbers for maternal mortality, childhood
malnutrition, TB incidence, malaria (where Uganda ranks NUMBER ONE in
case rates, with 477 cases per 1000 population . . .meaning half of
the people in the country suffer a case of malaria every year, and
fourth in the world in the number of deaths from malaria). This kind
of data should of course drive health services. Why not send the
doctors and nurses and malaria medicines and hospital equipment and
public health research and educational outreach to the epicenters of
disease? Well, the maps for health workers are actually the INVERSE
of the maps for disease. Uganda ranks 129 of 135 countries with data
for physician coverage, with 0.08 doctors per 1000 population, and
only 39% of births attended by skilled personnel. I hope that medical
schools and mission agencies spend time reviewing data like
this . . . .