HIV in Africa Africa is a region of the world often associated with HIV due to the infection’s enduring prevalence on the continent. Specifically, Sub-Saharan Africa is the area of the world with the most infected individuals, approximately 26.6 million with roughly 1.4 million new infections each year (Bowler; White). This equates to 2/3 of all HIV infected individuals around the world. In this region it is harder to obtain treatment than in other areas of the world, with only 41 percent of people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa having access to ART (“Data”). A subset of Sub-Saharan Africa that has the highest epidemic rate is Southern Africa, which consists of nine countries. Table 1 lists the countries in Southern Africa and shows …show more content…
Some of the most common explanations for the spread of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa are linked to the end of colonial rule, when the disease became an epidemic. With the end of colonialism in the region came civil wars, a breakdown of health and educational services, growing cities, sexual revolutions, and increased travel (Benton). When the Southern African countries gained their independence they were left with broken political systems that had previously been run by colonial powers. This transitional period was riddled with increased poverty, declining per capita income, food insecurity, lower production levels, and increased debt (Nkinyangi). Post independence civil wars were often caused because of cultural differences within a nation as a result of recourse control and clientelism. When colonial powers came to Africa, they created arbitrary boundaries based off of resources they desired, not the cultural differences of the people living in the region. When the colonial powers moved out, African nations were left with the boundaries that the colonists had created. African governments struggled to balance power between the different cultural groups. In many cases this led to violence. Since the end of colonialism in Africa, many of the nations standards of living decreased initially. This left the nations of Southern Africa with infrastructure unable to compete with rising HIV …show more content…
Southern Africa has an extremely high prevalence of people living with HIV and this had led many international organizations to work on mitigating the epidemic. The governments of countries in Southern Africa are not able to combat the HIV epidemic alone because they do not have the resources. One reason for this is corruption within the health care system. Many times funding is used to help wealthier citizens, while the average citizen is left with minimal resources and limited access to care. Another political issues that has been detrimental to the HIV epidemic is when governmental procedure is slow and inhibits positive change being enacted through drawn out legal
What would you say if I asked you to tell me what you think is causing the death of so many people in the horn of Africa? AIDS? Starvation? War? Would it surprise you if I told you that it all boils down to the women of Africa? Kofi Annan attempts to do just this in his essay “In Africa, Aids Has a Woman's Face.” Annan uses his work to tell us that women make up the “economic foundation of rural Africa” and the greatest way for Africa to thrive is through the women of Africa's freedom, power, and knowledge.
Since the development of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in the 1990s, HIV/AIDs has evolved from a death sentence into a treatable disease. It has presented a unique global health problem because while the treatments were very effective, they were extremely expensive, required advanced laboratory monitoring, were prescribed indefinitely, and required excellent patient compliance. In many of the developing countries devastated by AIDs/HIV, the health and societal infrastructures often had difficult supporting an effective treatment program. For that reason, it is estimated that 71% of HIV/AID cases are in sub-Saharan Africa and only 39% of of them are on ART (AVERT, 2015). Southern Africa is often considered the “epicenter” of the
Although Africa is the region of the world hardest hit by AIDS, and although no country has entirely escaped the virus, prevalence rates vary dramatically between regions, countries, and even within countries. In general, the southern region is the most affected, with Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe showing the highest rates, while West Africa has been less affected. In almost all countries, the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is significantly higher in urban areas than in rural areas.
According to the CDC, almost 1.1 million people in the United States have HIV, yet almost 20% of those people are unaware that they are living with the condition (CDC, 2013c). When the HIV broke out almost 30 years ago in the United States, the number of new cases in a year was 130,000. Now, each year the new number of cases being presented is approximately 50,000 (CDC, 2013c). In locations like Sub-Saharan Africa, the statistics are higher. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) states, “In 2011, an estimated 23.5 million people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 69% of the global HIV burden” (UNAIDS, 2012). The World Health Organization (WHO) reinforces this point by saying, “Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected region [of HIV], with nearly 1 in every 20 adults living with HIV. Sixty nine per cent of all people living with HIV are living in this region” (WHO, 2013a). The statistics of infected people living in the United States is alarming but there are other countries, like Africa, which have higher rates of HIV due to very limited
Half of the world’s cases are found in what is referred to as the AIDS belt, a chain of countries in eastern and southern Africa that is home to two percent of the global population. The main vehicle for spreading HIV throughout Africa is heterosexual intercourse. In contrast, this is the opposite compared to the U.S. where the virus is usually transmitted through homosexual intercourse or contaminated syringes shared by drug users. Besides heterosexual intercourse, HIV transmission through transfusion and contaminated medical equipment is common in sub-Saharan Africa. Africans infected with HIV die much sooner after diagnosis than HIV infected people in other parts of the world. In industrialized countries, the survival time after diagnosis of AIDS ranges from 9 to 26 months, but in Africa the survival time for patients is 5 to 9 months (UNAIDS 3). Factors, such as lower access to health care, poorer quality of health care services, poorer levels of average health and nutrition, and greater exposure to pathogens that cause infection all contribute to the shorter survival in Africa. It is difficult to stop the flood of AIDS cases in Africa because it is not yet known by researchers the factors that contribute to outstanding prevalence of the disease among heterosexuals. This diagnosis will help determine how likely it is that heterosexual epidemics will spread to Asia or the West.
...ld Health Organization (WHO) report shows that, most people living with HIV or at risk for HIV do not have access to treatment, care and prevention and there is still no cure. In spite of these challenges, there have been successes. Global efforts have been made to address the epidemic, specifically in the last decade. The HIV prevalence rates have been reduced in a small but growing number of countries due to prevention and new HIV infections are believed to be on the decline. In addition to this, the number of people with HIV receiving treatment in resource poor countries has increased 10 times since 2002, nearing an estimated 4 million by 2008.
Statistics have been show a frightening increase in AIDS/HIV cases. As of the year 2012, South Africa has had the most cases of HIV/AIDS coming to a total of 6,070,800 ("Country Comparison :: HIV/AIDS”). This is a huge contributing factor to this conspira...
HIV and AIDS have affected millions of people throughout the world. Since 1981, there have been 25 million deaths due to AIDS involving men, women, and children. Presently there are 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS around the world and two million die each year from AIDS related illnesses. The Center for Disease Control estimates that one-third of the one million Americans living with HIV are not aware that they have it. The earliest known case of HIV was in 1959. It was discovered in a blood sample from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Looking further into the genetics of this blood sample researchers suggested that it had originated from a virus going back to the late 1940’s or early 1950’s. In 1999, researchers had discovered that HIV is derived from chimpanzees native to west equatorial Africa. This epidemic is spreading throughout countries and infecting 14 thousand victims every day. Learning about HIV includes knowing how to contract the virus, understanding most of the people it affects, how to prevent the spread of it, and knowing what treatments are available.
The World Bank (1997) stated that “widespread poverty and unequal income distribution of income that typify underdevelopment, the lack of choices and the inability to determine one’s own destiny fuel the HIV epidemic.” Contestably studies from African countries which delve deeper in to the root causes and impacts of the correlation between HIV/AIDS and poverty through analysing statistical epidemiological and socioeconomic data suggest that there is a notable correlation between the spreading of HIV/AIDS and wealth / more prosperous states within Africa.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the current HIV/AIDS situation in South Africa, explain several programs that have been initiated by international organizations to aid the country, and explain the impact globalization has had on the awareness of this disease, and how the organizations are using this effect to their advantage.
McInnes, Colin. 2011. "HIV, AIDS and conflict in Africa: why isn't it (even) worse?" Review of International Studies 37 (2): 485-509.
The Centers for disease control (CDC) has declared AIDS a global pandemic. No one person or group is safe from contracting this virus; knowledge, and safety is the only way you can protect yourself. However, the first black South African diagnosed with AIDS was in 1987, and currently South Africa is home to over 5.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS, making it the largest population on earth with people infected. (3)
AIDS is a dangerous disease caused by a virus known as HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) that has led to the deaths of millions of individuals around the world, especially in sub-Saharan African countries such as Nigeria. The reason the disease is so dangerous is because it essentially destroys an infected individual’s immune system, leaving him or her to become more prone to contracting dangerous infections and cancers that cannot be fought off due to the lack of T helper cells. The HIV/AIDS epidemic officially began in Nigeria in 1985 when the first two cases of the disease were identified in the country’s largest city, Lagos; they were later reported to an international AIDS conference in 1986 (Adeyi, Kanki, Odutolu, and Idoko, 18). Though nine HIV testing centers were constructed and the National Expert Advisory Committee on AIDS (NEACA) was created by the Federal Ministry of Health in 1987, it was not until democracy was established in 1999 under President Olusegun Obansanjo that the country began a serious widespread effort to combat the disease (Adeyi, et al, 19). During this time gap, the number of infected Nigerians had greatly increased for various reasons, including Nigerians’ insufficient knowledge about the disease, shortage of medication, and lack of HIV testing.
The emergence of HIV/AIDS is viewed globally as one of the most serious health and developmental challenges our society faces today. Being a lentivirus, HIV slowly replicates over time, attacking and wearing down the human immune system subsequently leading to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) at which point the affected individual is exposed to life threatening illnesses and eventual death. Despite the fact that a few instances of this disease have been accounted for in all parts of the world, a high rate of the aforementioned living with HIV are situated in either low or medium wage procuring nations. The Sub-Saharan region Africa is recognized as the geographic region most afflicted by the pandemic. In previous years, people living with HIV or at risk of getting infected did not have enough access to prevention, care and treatment neither were they properly sensitized about the disease. These days, awareness and accessibility to all the mentioned (preventive methods, care etc.) has risen dramatically due to several global responses to the epidemic. An estimated half of newly infected people are among those under age 25(The Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic). It hits hard as it has no visible symptoms and can go a long time without being diagnosed until one is tested or before it is too late to manage.
... diseases such as AIDS are also becoming a problem in places like Africa. Knowledge of how to prevent these diseases is not widely known, so an increasing number of people are infected. More attention needs to be placed on adequate health care and technology in these countries. While these third world societies may not have the resources with which to implement these changes, more advanced societies certainly do.