Tropical Diseases

The most common killers in tropical areas are not exotic diseases. They are infectious diseases, many of which are not considered life-threatening in developed countries such as the United States. In the least industrialized countries, 40% or more of all deaths are caused by infectious disease. In the United States, about 1% of all deaths are caused by such illnesses. The huge difference in death rates stems from the fact that most infectious diseases are the easiest diseases to treat using modern medical care.

Approximately 10 million people die every year from respiratory diseases in the developing world. Such diseases are caused by the influenza virus or bacteria such as pneumococcus and Hemophilus influenza B. Measles, which can be prevented by immunization of infants, kills two million people in the developing world annually. The course of the disease in developing countries often includes complications such as diarrhea, ear infection, pneumonia, and weight loss. For some, weight loss leads to malnutrition. Aggressive efforts to curb measles deaths through immunization have reduced the number of potential deaths in recent years.

Whooping cough is another early childhood disease which is seen rarely in the United States but is common in developing countries. About 600,000 people die of whooping cough annually in the developing world, with many of these deaths occurring among small children. About 55 million people develop the disease. Whooping cough is also prevented by immunization.

Another infectious disease which is a common killer in developing countries is tuberculosis, which kills about 900,000 people every year and infects about seven million people annually. Tuberculosis can be treated through immunization and drug therapy, although drug resistant strains are becoming increasingly prevalent. Though deaths have been reduced internationally over the last 30 years, the disease is still very common in tropical areas.

Tropical-disease areas have also been hit hard by AIDS and HIV infection. An estimated 15 million people internationally are infected by the HIV virus, the World Health Organization estimated in 1994. Of those about one-fifth have developed AIDS, a disease which is fatal in most instances.

A key emphasis of prevention programs in Africa has been promoting the use of condoms during sexual intercourse, a practice which reduces the risk of AIDS. In Africa, condom use increased from two million per year in 1986 to about 70 million in 1993. But problems remain, particularly in places where poverty limits the safety of the blood supply, where condoms are in short supply, where access to accurate information about the disease is limited, and where health providers are far away.