So, Zimbabweans must endure another term of Robert Mugabe. Here are some health-related statistics from that beleaguered country:

Life expectancy at birth: 39.7 years (4th lowest in the world)

Infant mortality rate: 50.6 per 1000 livebirths

 Adult HIV prevalence: 24.6% (4th highest in the world)

Proportion of population below poverty line: 68%

Mugabe has now made a triumphal entry at the African Union summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The talk there has turned to Zimbabwe, as delegates weigh up whether to even recognise him as President in light of the risible election process by which he “won”, and are expected to call for him to explore power-sharing negotiations with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Let’s hope participants are not distracted from the focus of the summit: meeting the Millennium Development Goals on water and sanitation. As The Lancet discusses in its long leader this week, 9·1% of the global burden of disease could be prevented by improving water, sanitation, and hygiene. Now that is worth talking about.

Zoë Mullan

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 10:39 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.