Lesotho

Lesotho is a landlocked enclave of South Africa that until 1966 was the British colony of Basoutoland. It is the only independent country in the world that lays entirely about 1000 m (3300 ft), and about 80 percent lays above 1800 m (5900 ft). Lesotho's main export is water, with the Lesotho Highlands Water Project designed to store water from the Orange River and deliver it to Johannesburg, South Africa. The country is deeply connected with South Africa, with much of its money coming in the form of remittances from Basotho working in South African mines.

The population is 2,125,000 and growing almost imperceptibly at 0.144 percent annually. The birth rate and the death rate are almost equal, at 24.72 births per 1,000 and 22.49 deaths per 1,000. Median age is 21.1 years. Life expectancy, which was at about 60 years in the early 1990s, has dropped to 40.73 years for males and 39.18 years for females. Gross national income is $960, with 36 percent of the population living on less than $1 a day. Only 18 percent of the population lives in urban areas. Eighty-six percent of the work-ing-age population works in agriculture; 35 percent of working-age males cross the border to work in nearby South African mines. Remittances from these workers are critical to the national economy.

In part due to the high terrain, Lesotho is largely free of malaria and other diseases. Some rural areas have a high rate of rabies, meningitis, and measles.

AIDS and tuberculosis are Lesotho's biggest health problems, blotting out almost all others. At 31 percent, the country has the second-highest adult prevalence rate of AIDS in the world, next to Swaziland. About 270,000 Basotho are estimated to be infected. The tuberculosis rate is also staggeringly high, with 11,454 new cases diagnoses in a single year. A large number of cases are multi- or extensively-drug resistant. Many more cases of go undiagnosed,

The leading causes of death in Lesotho are pulmonary tuberculosis (30.6 percent), pneumonia (28.7 percent), HIV/AIDS (8.9 percent) and pneumonconiosis with tuberculosis (6.4 percent). In all, the World Health Organization believes that HIV is implicated in 68 percent of all morbidity and mortality. While AIDS is the focus of the medical community, the kingdom's Ministry of Health notes that non-communicable diseases like diabetes, cancers, hypertension, accidents and psychiatric illnesses also take a toll on Basotho.

Child mortality rates are up from 1990 levels, now standing at 102 deaths per 1,000 for infants younger than one, and 132 deaths per 1,000 for children aged 1–5 years. Immunizations rates hover around 80 percent. There are 150,000 orphans in Lesotho, most of them from the AIDS epidemic. Although the Ministry of Health notes that there is little in the way of a social network to replace these children's family, 95 percent of orphans are enrolled in school.

One-fourth of Basotho marry before the age of 18. Rape and other sexual violence against girls is common. Females of all ages are at risk for contracting AIDS, with 150,000 women already infected. Only 37 percent use birth control, and the total fertility rate is 3.21 children per woman. Ninety percent of pregnant women receive some prenatal care, but only 55 percent have a trained attendant during childbirth. This contributes to a high maternal mortality rate, with 550 deaths per 100,000 live births.

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