Paul O'Reilly SJ

But quite a lot of things have not changed.  Homeless people in London have an average age at death of 42; homeless IV drug users have an average age at death of 34.  As Mary is wont to say, "Some of the poorest people in the world live half way between the palaces of Westminster and Buckingham."

Some things have also changed for the worse.  The price of crack cocaine is now a fifth of what it was six years ago; so consumption is expanding exponentially - doubling every eighteen months.

Try a brain teaser: fifteen years ago, what other disease reduced people's average age at death to the middle-thirties and was doubling every eighteen months? (Clue: think sub-Saharan Africa.)