Miscellaneous trivia

Recently I attended a hospital meeting where I learned all sorts of interesting trivia.  It encompasses medical knowledge, Africa in general, Namibia, the Kavango region (the region where Rundu is) and Rundu itself.  Some of them are entertaining and some are heartbreaking...  

• The incubation period for Leprosy can be up to 20 years!  So, 20 years after you are exposed you can still get it!
• The Kavango region has over 400 registered 'traditional healers' (also known as witch doctors).... and that's just the registered ones!
• Only 3% of the world's health care work force reside in Africa, though Africa suffers from almost 25% of the world's disease burden.
• There are 112 identified bacteria and viruses in the Kavango region.
• Rundu State Hospital has over 3,000 patients on Anti-RetroViral (ARV) therapy for HIV/AIDS.  Over 10,000 people pass through the ARV clinic's doors each year for testing, counseling and medical examination.
• According to Rundu State Hospital's guidelines, doctors should only spend 12 minutes on each out-patient exam with a total of only 25 patients per day.  That equates to only 5 hours of work.  :-)  I'm not saying what actually happens... I just wanted to tell you what the guidelines are!
• Namibia has approximately 3,500 people who are Hepatitis B positive.
• A study (no idea who did it or where they did it) showed that when a man is circumcised it reduces the risk of transmitting HIV by 60%.  Namibia is looking into making it mandatory that all of it's male citizens have this procedure performed... 

According to the UNICEF document 'The State of the World's Children 2008': 

• "In 2006, for the first time in recent history, the total number of annual deaths among children under the age of five fell below 10 million, to 9.7 million.  This represents a 60 per cent drop in the rate of child mortality since 1960."  However... "Of the 62 countries making no progress or insufficient progress towards the Millennium Development Goal on child survival, nearly 75 per cent are in Africa." (page iii)
• Namibia ranks number 61 in the list of countries with the highest under five mortality rates.  Sierra Leone is the highest.  The United States is tied in the 151st place with the United Arab Emirates, Lithuania, Slovakia, Serbia and Thailand.
• In 2005 the rate of adults ages 15-49 living with HIV was  19.6.  
• In 2005, the total number of HIV positive people 2005 in Namibia was estimated at 230,000.     
• In 2005, the number of HIV positive women ages 15+ was 130,000!  
• In 2005, the estimate of children ages 0-14 that were HIV positive is 17,000.  
• HIV prevalence among young people ages 15-24 is 3 times higher in women than men (4.4% vs 13.4%).  
• In 2005, children ages 0-17 orphaned by HIV was 85,000, which is over half of the children ages 0-17 orphaned for all reasons which was 140,000.  

All of these statistics are astounding when you think that Namibia's total population is less than 2 million!