Aids crisis hits development

The Aids crisis in South Africa is the main reason for the country's drop by 11 places since last year on the UNDP's Human Development Index to 101 out of 174 countries listed. In its Human Development Report for 1999 released this week, UNDP cautioned that "South Africa has one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in the world. Many of the advances achieved during the short life of the new democracy will be reversed if the epidemic goes unchecked." It added: "The economic costs alone, in labour and sick days are far greater than initially realised." According to the report an estimated 51 percent of South Africans are not expected to live beyond the age of 60, and South Africa is among four other countries where life expectancy has dropped because of Aids. The report said that by the year 2010, life expectancy is expected to fall from 60 to 48 years. Meanwhile, news reports said on Tuesday that an estimated one in five people in Gauteng province, the country's economic heartland, are HIV positive. Gauteng Health Department's Aids Programme Director Dr Liz Floyd was quoted as saying that the majority of the province's citizens had "substantial knowledge" of the disease but were in a "state of denial." "People in general underestimate the lethal capacity of the epidemic, despite the fact that they were aware of the dangers. Half of the province's population want to believe that they face fewer risks than everyone else," said Floyd. Gauteng is one of the most densely populated provinces in South Africa. The UN report is an analyses of the human development changes that have occurred in 174 countries during the past year. It ranks these countries based on life expectancy, education and income.