Zimbabwe has world's lowest life expectancy

Bloomberg Printer-Friendly Page: "Zimbabwe Has World's Lowest Life Expectancy of 36 (Update1)
April 7 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe, which has the world's fourth- worst AIDS epidemic, overtook Swaziland as the country with the world's lowest life expectancy, data released today by the World Health organization showed.
In 2004, Zimbabweans could expect to live to the age of 36, with life expectancy for men at 37 and women at 34, the WHO said in its 2006 annual report released on its Web site. That compared with overall life expectancy of 37 in 2003. Life expectancy in Swaziland, where a greater proportion of the people are infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, rose to 37 from 35.
As of the end of 2003, the United Nations AIDS agency estimated that 1.8 million people in Zimbabwe carried the HIV virus. The country's infection rate was exceeded only by Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland. In 2003, Zimbabwe had a population of 12.9 million people, according to the Geneva-based WHO.
The country's economy shrank every year for the last six and its annual inflation rate of 914 percent is the world's highest.
People in Japan, where life expectancy is 82, live the longest, the WHO said.


To contact the reporter on this story:
Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg asguazzin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 7, 2006 09:59 EDT "