Dr. Whiteside has been working for 26 years for HIV/AIDS research in Africa. He came to the Scholar Ship to give the plenary lecture during our conference on the economic impact of HIV/AIDS that brought in experts from all over world to a symposium organized by our research institute.
he shared with us stats that we have maybe forgotten about -- the 33.5 million people living with HIV (with the highest prevalence shifting to Russia and Asia) and how this data is being incredibly misused. He believes that it will take at least another 8 to 10 years before we will really see the infection manifest itself! Swaziland has now the worse epidemic in the world and no resources to fight it. 50% of young women between the ages of 20 to 25 are infected, while 45% of men between the ages of 35 to 39 are.
He is mostly concerned because, in his own words, "we have never seen in the developing world where there is less than zero percent population growth! When life expectancy is less than 30 years old, where do we go from there?"
The economic impact of this projection is catastrophic, in his mind, and points to a systemic crisis that Africa and the parts of Asia and Eastern Europe are now facing. As the population will drop, the per capita income will go up, and now counties will have a hard time getting foreign aid...
Some disturbing thoughts he left us with:
1) Do we have a responsibility to the citizens of the workd?
2) Do we have responsibility for this epidemic?
3) Is this just a Darwinian event?
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