JSM - Edition Two

C hallenges A nd O pportunities L ocally A nd G lobally - continued Poliovirus tragically, mainly affects children under the age of 5. This virus affects the central nervous system as they are growing up and they may eventually die. 27.4 Million children die from Human Immunodeficiency Virus known as HIV annually. Furthermore, HIV infection makes people more susceptible to contracting Tuberculosis. Children who suffer from both HIV and Tuberculosis are much more likely to die as their small bodies attempt to fight two diseases at once. There are also one million deaths from Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or AIDS worldwide, again many of these victims are children. When comparing the prevalence of both HIV infection and Tuberculosis across the world, we can use the statistics from Australia and Cambodia to contrast the incidence of these diseases between the first and third world. Australia has one of the lowest rates of Tuberculosis worldwide. In 2010, there was 1,353 Tuberculosis cases reported in Australia. Most of these were immigrants who had migrated to Australia from other countries. There were very few reports of children with Tuberculosis and the majority of these were in the Aboriginal community. In contrast, the disease that kills the most children in Cambodia each year is Tuberculosis. Cambodia has had one of the highest Tuberculosis prevalence rates in the world. Doctors Without Borders estimated in 2011, that 64 per cent of all Cambodians carry the Tuberculosis Mycobacterium and that at any time 690 out of every 100, 000 people in the country have full blown Tuberculosis. www.doctorswithoutborders.org HIV infection in Australia is decreasing and this is reflected in the incidence of childhood HIV. In 2015, the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisation stated that over the last 10 years, there has been approximately 400 children born to mothers with HIV. Of these only 13 contracted the disease and in the case of half of those, the moth- ers were diagnosed with HIV after the birth. https://www.afao.org.au/about-hiv/the-hiv-epidemic/hiv-statistics-australia On the contrary, UNICEF estimated that in 2008, 3,800 children were living with HIV in Cambodia. Most of these HIV infections in Cambodia occur as a result of mother-to- child transmission. 1.1% of pregnant women are diagnosed with HIV in Cambodia and

it is estimated that 1,547 babies will be born with HIV each year. www.unicef.org/eapro/OVC_Situation_Assess_June_2008.pdf

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JSM Edition Two

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