The numbers are frightening: every year almost 10 million children still die from diseases that are mostly avoidable. The majority of them – 7.9 million – are in the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This figure compares with about 100,000 deaths in the industrial countries. One woman in the world dies each minute from the consequences of pregnancy or childbirth, because proper medical care is not available. In 2007, some 2.1 million people died of AIDS. Many millions also suffer from diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria or other infectious diseases, like river blindness, sleeping sickness and dengue fever. Violation of the human right to health is a humanitarian disaster for people living in the developing countries and a moral disaster for the rest of humankind.
