HARARE, Oct 9 Ufe ex % pectancy in eastern and south ern African countries with se vere AIDS epidemics will decline by 2010 to half that originally projected before the virus spread, experts predict, reports,.

The result, according to recent estimates by the US Bureau of the Census, is that average life expectancy in Malawi will drop to 29.5 years, the lowest in the world, instead of 57 otherwise.

In 1996 life expectancy in Malawi stood at 36, Without the ravages caused by the Acouired Immune Deficiency Syndrome it would have been around 50.

In Zambia, life expectancy is estimated to fall to 30 years by 2010 while in Botswana it will go down to 33 years, both 50 per

cent of that originally expected

In the absence of AIDS, life expectancy in Zambia would have been 57.5 years in 1996 but has been reduced to about 36. while Botswana was projected tp be at 60 years but was down to 46 years.

The average Zimbabwean born in 2010 could have a expected to reach 70. but now he will be lucky to reach 33. Life expectancy last year was put at 42. but without AIDS it would have been 64.

East Africa is better off, because although AIDS is still rife there the epidemic is not as severe.

Kenya's life expectancy for 1996 had been estimated at 65 but fell as a result of AIDS to 56, while Uganda's dropped from 53 to 40, In 2010 it will be 44 in-

stead of 68. and 35 instead of 54 respectively.

The national percentage of adults infected with the HIV Virus that causes AIDS is about 18 per cent in Zambia and Zim-babwe and about 14 per cent in Uganda.

The unprecedented decline in life expectancy will have an important demographic im-Eact. said Geoff Foster, a Zim-abwean doctor and head of the Mutare Family AIDS Caring Trust.

"Many years of life will be lost due to the AIDS epidemic," he said.

Foster, who is a paediatrician, said lowered life expectancy due to AIDS necessarily implies dramatic increases in the numbers of orphaned children.