Statistics

Taken from www.one.org/

In 2007, HIV/AIDS killed 2.2 million people, 1.7 million people died from tuberculosis (TB) and malaria killed another 881,000 people. These global pandemics disproportionately affect the world’s poorest people and Africa is by far the hardest hit: over 8,000 people die every day in Africa from these three preventable and treatable diseases.
The human impact of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria is undeniable, but their socioeconomic impact is also severe. In Africa, AIDS threatens to wipe out an entire generation during its most productive years- businesses are losing their workers, governments are losing their civil servants and families are losing their breadwinners. These three diseases are having a measurable impact throughout developing world: 12.1 million children in Africa have already lost one or both parents to AIDS. Some estimates indicate that annual GDP growth rates in countries with high incidences of HIV/AIDS can be 2-4% lower than in countries with an absence of the disease. It is estimated that malaria-an entirely preventable and treatable disease-costs Africa $12 billion in lost economic growth each year.

Evidence for Action
The good news is that these diseases are preventable and treatable using proven, cost-effective strategies:
Antiretroviral medication to treat people living with HIV/AIDS costs as little as $140 per patient per year, down from nearly $10,000 a year less than 10 years ago.
Malaria can be all but eliminated through four highly successful interventions: insecticide-treated bed nets (which cost $6 to manufacture and distribute) and anti-malarial treatment (which costs $2 per dose), as well as indoor residual spraying and preventative treatment for pregnant women.
In many endemic countries, $16-35 will buy a full six month drug course of TB treatments.
The establishment of initiatives such as the Global Fund, PEPFAR and the President’s Malaria Initiative has helped to dramatically scale up global resources to fight these diseases: In 2002, only 50,000 HIV-positive people in Africa had access to antiretroviral medicines (only 1% of those in need). At the end of 2007, over 2 million Africans (30% of those in need) — and 2 million people globally (31% of those in need) — were receiving treatment. To protect families from malaria, the Global Fund has helped deliver 59 million bed nets since 2002. In Rwanda and Ethiopia, the dramatic scale-up of bed nets and anti-malaria treatment has reduced malaria deaths by over 50% in the past two years. Moving Forward Despite recent successes, current efforts are not on the scale necessary. Around the world, 6.7 million people who need antiretroviral treatment are still not receiving it and 7,400 people are newly infected with HIV each day. In 2005, world leaders committed to helping provide universal access to AIDS prevention, care and treatment by 2010, but there is still no plan in place for realizing this ambitious goal. Malaria is still responsible for one in every five childhood deaths in Africa. 2.5 million Africans become newly infected with TB each year and more than 500,000 of those infected people die.Much more must be done on all three of these deadly diseases and one necessary prerequisite for doing so is increased global funding. While the world spent approximately $10 billion fighting HIV/AIDS in 2007, UNAIDS estimates that funding levels will need to increase by over 50% by 2010 in order to maintain the current scale up of universal access for prevention, care and treatment. Malaria efforts will require between $1.9-3.1 billion per year and stopping TB will cost an estimated $3.1 billion from donors annually but in 2007 donors fell more than $1 billion short. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly clear that health systems must be strengthened in order to deliver these scaled up services. Already stretched doctors, nurses and pharmacists as well as the systems and facilities that support them must be reinforced not just to address AIDS, TB and malaria but to ensure that while we do so, we don't further exacerbate other basic health challenges as well. HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria can be defeated, but if the effective solutions that are currently within reach are scaled up dramatically.

"We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and in truth." 1 John 3;16-18