High altitude climbing is interesting. While the equatorial location of Mt. Kilimanjaro may make the temperature at higher elevations more like lower elevations elsewhere, I don't imagine there's any more oxygen.

Several people climbing Kilimanjaro at the same time I was—including two American doctors and some Austrian gentlemen—took Diamox to assist in acclimation. Ashley, a young woman who was part of a British couple climbing alongside me, starting taking it at Kibo Hut. Apparently it alters the oxygen dissociation curve so that hemoglobin will release oxygen more readily.

They don't publicize the statistics, but my informal and anecdotal survey suggests that on the order of 1000's attempt Mt. Kili, 100's actually arrive at the crater rim, and 10's die. I heard that eight people died in December during the millennial climb. One woman died of High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema (HAPE), or fluid on the lungs, on January 1, after she and her husband insisted on continuing to climb against their guide's recommendation.