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Abstract
The HIV/AIDS epidemic has resulted in significant increases in mortality rates in the affected countries, and it is now the leading cause of death in southern Africa. In Botswana, one of the worst-affected countries, with an adult HIV prevalence rate of 37.3 percent, mortality among the working-age population had increased to 3.8 percent a year (of which 3.7 percentage points, or 96 percent, is HIV/AIDS related) by 2004. Correspondingly, life expectancy has decreased substantially, frequently wiping out gains achieved over several decades. For example, life expectancy at birth is now estimated at less than 40 years for Botswana and Zambia (declines of 41 and 17 years, respectively, compared with a no-AIDS scenario).1
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