Zambia

Zambia is located in southern Africa, bordered by eight other countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. Explorer David Livingstone discovered the magnificent Victoria Falls on the Zambizi River in 1855, but the region was largely untouched by Europeans until British mining interests led by the colonialist Cecil Rhodes arrived in the late 1880s; the entire area (including present-day Zimbabwe) was named Rhodesia in his honor. Northern Rhodesia won full independence from the British in 1964 and took the name Zambia. It has since struggled to build and maintain a stable government. The collapse of copper prices in the 1970s destroyed the national economy. Today, seven in 10 Zambians live in poverty and AIDS rates are among the world's highest.

The population is 11.5 million, growing at 1.7 percent annually. The AIDS epidemic and increased child mortality rates are the driving factors of this slow population growth, and life expectancy is now in decline. In 1980, life expectancy was 52 years; by 2003, it had dropped to 37. Infant mortality is 102 deaths per 1,000 births. For children, 182 of every 1,000 will die before their fifth birthday. Maternal mortality varies, with an overall rate of 750 deaths per 100,000 live births, but increasing to perhaps 1,300 deaths per 100,000 births in rural areas.

The Zambian government has taken affirmative steps to deal with the country's economic problems in recent years, and there are some signs of better days ahead. That said, 64 percent of the population gets by on less than $1 a day, and 86 percent live in poverty. Food insecurity has been a problem for about 60 percent of all Zambians since the early 1990s. A prolonged drought in recent years has reduced crop yields to critical levels, and the World Health Organization believes that 1.2 million Zambians currently need food aid. Close to 30 percent of children under the age of 5 are underweight, and 47 percent show signs of stunting.

Zambia has a high burden of communicable diseases, particularly in rural areas, where 35 percent of people have access to safe water and 71 percent have sanitary facilities. Diarrhea, typhoid, and hepatitis A are prevalent in many areas. Vector-borne diseases such as malaria are endemic in many regions. Most deaths in children under 5 are attributable to malaria. Immunization planning is poor, and drug inventories lack many needed medications with which to treat the ill.

Like its neighbors, Zambia suffers from a sweeping AIDS epidemic, with 17 percent of the population infected with the virus. This means that one out [Page 1776]of every six Zambians between the ages of 15 and 49 is now infected. Four times as many women between 15 and 24 are infected as men of the same age, and there is a high level of mother-to-child transmission. In 2005, there were approximately 44,000 people receiving antiretroviral drugs out of an estimated 183,000 who were in need of treatment. The government has committed itself to halt the spread of the disease, and the rate of increase seems to have stabilized in the past few years.

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