Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Let's put swine flu in perspective, folks.

How many people have died of AIDS?

Almost 5,500 people die every day due to AIDS. AIDS caused 2 million deaths in 2007. An estimated 32 million people have died from AIDS since the beginning of the pandemic.

How fast is the pandemic growing?

There were 2.7 million new HIV infections in 2007, or almost 7,400 people per day.

How many children and young people are infected with HIV?

In 2007, 370,000 children under 15 were newly infected with HIV, bringing the total number of children living with HIV to 2 million. About half of all new adult HIV infections occur among 15-24 year olds. Learn more about USAID's efforts to prevent HIV in children and young people.

How many children have been orphaned because of HIV/AIDS?

As of 2003, approximately 15 million children had lost one or both parents due to HIV/AIDS. By 2010, this number is expected to increase to 25 million.

Which parts of the world are most severely affected by HIV/AIDS?

Approximately 95 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS live in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest-hit region, but other regions face severe or rapidly growing epidemics in specific countries or areas. Parts of Asia and Latin America are experiencing severe epidemics at the national or local level. Eastern Europe and Central Asia is the region with the fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world.

The above information was lifted directly from a page I found when I googled "How many people have died from AIDS?"


One would think that with those truly alarming and disturbing statistics that AIDS would be making headlines. In 2007, there were about 7,400 infections a day. I think the media should be stopped from this swine-flu feeding frenzy. There are between 40 and 50 people infected with swine flu in the whole of the US. Time will tell, but I doubt it will even begin to compare with the AIDS scourge in Africa. And AIDS is fatal! Every time! Swine flu is something most people can recover from. Today's sensational media coverage is really uncalled for, in my opinion. Wash your hands. Sneeze into your elbow. This is common sense. I actually just watched a woman on the news demonstrate how to wash hands properly. Sheesh.

Take out your checkbooks and send a donation to benefit AIDS research, then turn off the TV folks. Get out and plant your gardens.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx

Jim G. said...

Or. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/28/regular.flu/index.html