HIV/Aids burden and poverty in Eastern Africa
Ongoing Challenges and Achievements
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) targets people’s immune systems and weakens their defence against infections and some types of cancer. The most advanced stage of HIV is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and is defined by certain cancer and infection development. The most common causes of transmission are unprotected sex and contaminated needles.
While Eastern Africa is the second most HIV- affected region in the world after Southern Africa, many individuals suffer from this disease. In 2019, 6.7% of adults were infected with HIV, which translates into 20.7 million individuals in Eastern and Southern Africa.
But also the economies and, resulting from this, the healthcare systems in many African countries are strained due to the still recurrent effects of the HIV pandemic. Because HIV/Aids usually impacts individuals in their most productive years, it negatively influences work productivity. As many families in rural areas are self-employed, the negative effect on work productivity can have an immense burden on family income and contribute to poverty.
HIV/Aids is not curable but treatable. Therefore, effective antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) are needed to control the virus. The access to these drugs is important to be able to live with HIV. In 2019, 67% of people with HIV were receiving antiretroviral therapy, which shows that still one third does not have access to ARVs and thus is more susceptible to lifelong symptoms of the disease. Vulnerable populations, specifically those living in rural Southern and Eastern Africa, face the highest barriers to receiving consistent drug therapy.
On an individual level, people have to deal with stigma in their communities and their social networks. The stigma connected to HIV/AIDS leads to individuals fearing to disclose their disease, which reinforces the unaware transmission of individuals, in turn raising the global number of infections. Also, vulnerabilities regarding mental health, such as loneliness and disrupted social relationships, severely affect infected individuals besides high medication regimen.
Due to the fact that ARVs have to be taken for the rest of the lives of HIV patients, it presupposes constant access to drugs. However, in poor and rural communities, access to these drugs over decades can be difficult and a challenge in itself. Thus, it is not only the physical access to ART, but also the transport to health facilities which poses challenges in poor and rural communities. Presupposing infrastructure in place and the needed drugs available at communal health posts is a luxury that not every HIV-infected individual can count on.
Moreover, children in HIV-affected households face disadvantages in their access to education. When they need to care for a sick parent by taking over chores or the parents cannot afford school fees due to lost income, education cannot be followed. Lack of access to education for children takes away opportunities and enforces the cycle of poverty, persistent in low-and middle income countries.
To finish on a brighter note, governments report impressive reductions in HIV incidences due to international efforts and programs focused on tackling HIV/Aids, e.g. UNAIDS. Multilateral and widespread funding has been made available over the years through political will and attention to the issue. This allowed intergovernmental organisations as well as NGOs to tackle the incidence while also putting pressure on governments to categorise the fight against HIV as a policy priority.
Also, coverage of services has been going up increasingly, which can be seen by the fact that 68% of adults and 53% of children living with HIV globally received ART in 2019. Lastly, knowing that a HIV-positive individual on ART can expect to live as long as someone who is not HIV-infected is a beacon of hope. Also the fact that infection numbers, in comparison with the epidemic peak in the 1990s, have been cut in half shows that interventions and medical advancement also reach the most vulnerable.
