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Chingola

AIDS in Zambia

Next issue - AIDS Orphan Project in Chingola >>

According to Zambia's Central Board of Health, 19% of the country's adult population is infected by the Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (HIV). The disease kills 120,000 Zambians a year, according to UNAids, or some 300 people every day. Life expectancy has fallen by 20 years since 1990, to 33.4 years, the lowest of any country in the world. Those infected with the HIV virus will eventually die from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) within two to 20 years. Although there is no known cure to the disease there are a number of medications that slow down the onset of AIDS and death.

HIV and AIDS in Zambia

In 1995 the 'Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights', or TRIPS was agreed at the World Trade Organisation. These trade rules cover 'intellectual property' - which basically means ownership of ideas. Amongst other things, it enabled large pharmaceutical companies to patent drugs and charge monopoly prices. This had the effect of stopping developing countries getting affordable treatment for major epidemics, particularly AIDS. As a result of public pressure the Doha Agreement, reached in 2001, stated that 'governments must put public health before patent rights'. However, in practice, according to Medecins Sans Frontières, 'Global patent rules will continue to drive up the price of medicines'. For most Zambians the cost of AIDS treatment is still prohibitively expensive.

In areas where there are low levels of literacy and education, ignorance of the disease, its impact and mode of transfer, together with the stigma associated with being HIV positive, will ensure its rapid spread. Whilst poverty itself may not directly cause AIDS, families and individuals struggling for survival are more vulnerable to contracting HIV. Reduced access to health care, poor nutrition, increased likelihood of migrating in search of work and the reduced status of women are all poverty influenced factors affecting the spread of HIV.

As the majority of people who die from AIDS are either mothers or the main income earner of the family a generation of orphans is being created. The HIV/AIDS pandemic had orphaned 600,000 children by 2000, and this number is projected to reach 974,000 by 2014. In the absence of state welfare payments and with the limited amount of help from charities the burden of bringing up these orphans falls on to the extended family, particularly female-headed households. This puts additional pressure on the resources of the household at a time when increased unemployment, reduced incomes, and economic austerity imposed by structural adjustment programmes are increasing levels of poverty.

In rural communities livestock represent reserves of asset wealth which can be sold or exchanged in times of need. In a recent five-year survey, almost half of female-headed households with orphans had lost all their cattle and pigs due to property dispossession following the death of a spouse and sale to cover medical bills. Farm equipment, such as ploughs and carts, often has to be sold to pay for medicines, school fees and food. The consequent need for labour means that the opportunity costs of sending children to school increase and households cannot afford school expenses. The sale of productive assets and the removal of children from school increase household poverty in the long term and worsen the distribution of wealth, as land too may often have to be sold.

The consequent fall in people's earning capacity and consumer spending is having a serious impact on both demand and supply sides of the economy.

Next issue - AIDS Orphan Project in Chingola >>