A LOST CONTINENT?

Byline: By, Investor's Daily

Consider: In 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, more than 10% of adults aged15-49 are infected with HIV, says the United Nations AIDS program. Seven of those countries saw HIV infection rates over 20%. Some 70% of the world's HIV cases live in Africa. The bottom 24 countries in a U.N. Human Development Indexof 174 are in sub-Saharan Africa. Of the 45 sub-Saharan countries, 10 had realgross domestic products of less than $ 1 billion in 1998. All but three had a GDP under $ 10 billion. The consequences of these data are terrible to contemplate. With death rates among young, productive adults spiraling because of AIDS and other diseases, …