Medical needs

• The United Republic of Tanzania is one of the 10 poorest countries in the world and among those with the highest rates of AIDS in the world.
  
  
• The average life expectancy is 43 years old.
  
  
• An estimated 50% of children in Tanzania are malnourished.
  
  
• The leading cause of premature deaths include malaria, dysentery, pneumonia, TB and AIDS.
  
  
• Malaria is the number one killer of children in Tanzania with an estimated 80,000 children dying each year.
  
  
• Of every 100 children born in Tanzania, 14 will die before they are 5 years old, mainly from water-borne diseases.
  
  
• Tanzania faces a major shortage of medical doctors, with an average of one medical doctor for every 25,000 persons, one of the lowest doctor/person ratios in the world.
  
  
• A major shortage of doctors and nurses in the country, along with poorly equipped medical facilities, particularly in rural locations, seriously limits Tanzania?s ability to provide health services to the country?s 37 million people.