Life Expectancy in South Africa and HIV/AIDS

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Life expectancy is the average period that a person may expect to live. This is directly related to mortality which is the amount of deaths in a particular population during a specific period of time (OECD, 2009). According to World Health Organization the average Life expectancy in the world was 70 in 2011, varying from 80 to 60 with developed countries such as Japan at the peak with 80 whereas developing countries like Uganda and South Africa are at close to the bottom with 43 and 63 respectively (WHO, 2014). It can be argued that life expectancy has a close relationship with the average income of a country (Wilkinson, 1992). Countries with low life expectancy are usually characterized by low standard of living such as the outbreak of diseases and epidemics, poor medical intervention facility, mass illiteracy, low human development Index and so on (Evans & Hunt, 2009). Although life expectancy is a result of the combination of several factors, this essay will only focus on HIV/AIDS as a factor in South Africa. It will also look at HIV/AIDS as a problem associated with life expectancy, then the administering of antiretroviral therapy and the use of condoms as possible solutions.
The HIV/AIDS Epidemic is undoubtedly the major problem associated with low life expectancy in South Africa. AIDS is caused by HIV which attacks the immune system of the human body leaving the body defenseless against all other ailment. Though the AIDS virus is principally transmitted through sexual intercourse there are several other ways it can be transmitted which includes; mother to baby transmission, skin penetration from unsterile infected object. It is therefore suggested that most HIV and AIDS related deaths in South Africa are generally between wi...

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Stone, V. E. (2001). Strategies for Optimizing Adherence to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy: Lessons from Research and Clinical Practice. Oxford Journal, 33(6), pp. 865-872.
Walensky, R. . P. et al. (2008). Scaling Up Antiretroviral Therapy in South Africa:. JID, 197(9), pp. 1324-1332.
Wilkinson, R. G. (1992). Income distribution and life expectancy. BMJ, Volume 302, pp. 165-168.
World Health Organisation. (2014). Exposing misclassified HIV/AIDS deaths in South Africa. [Online]
Available at: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/89/4/11-086280/en/
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World Health Organisation. (2014). Global Health Observatory. [Online]
Available at: http://www.who.int/gho/mortality_burden_disease/life_tables/situation_trends_text/en/
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