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What are the sources of 700,000 dead in AIDS yearly in Zimbabwe? I´m referring to article by N. Reynolds (Pambazuka News 200, Letters)

Norman Reynolds responds: The death figure is correct for that year. It comes from an MDC paper written by Eddie Cross in July 2002. He, in fact, predicted that in 2003 one million would die of AIDS given the sharp turn down of the economy, hunger and the already high infection rate. Of these, 750,000 deaths were easily prevented in a normal country. The background data is that, from 1984 to 2001, one million Zimbabweans died from Aids. Since the collapse of the economy, 2001 to 2004, the rate was 170,000 rising sharply each year with poverty and the growing lack of or inability to buy food to around 700,000. That has added another 1.5 million to the total deaths from AIDS. This rising number is awful but has been held back by migration.