• Disease is the leading collective cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa.  Greater than 90% of the causes of death are due to disease.
   
• Accidents, war, homicides and other physical trauma account for only 4% of deaths in the region.
   
• The top four leading causes of death in sub-Saharan Africa are HIV AIDS (22.6%), respiratory tract infections (10%), Malaria (9%) and diarrhoeal diseases such as dysentery and cholera (6.7%).

          HIV-AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa:

•  70% of adults living with AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa
   
•  In some parts of Southern Africa, the prevalence of AIDS in the adult population is 36%
   
• Within the Economic Community of West African States, the percentage of pregnant women visiting clinics in urban capitals, who are diagnosed with AIDS can be as high as 10%.

          Malaria:

• The frequency of parasitological failure of chloroquine in West Africa, due to resistant Plasmodium falciparum, reached an estimated 55%.
   
• Most West African countries have adopted the WHO recommendation to use artemisinin (...and derivatives) combination therapy as first line in uncomplicated malaria

          Local Pharmaceutical Production

• Only 30% of drugs used in sub-Saharan Africa is produced in Sub-Saharan Africa