Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
chapter 8
HIv/aIDS epidemic
Hany besada
In 2007, 33.2 million people worldwide were thought to be living with HIv/aIDS
(UNAIDS and World Health Organization [WHO] 2007). Sub-Saharan africa, with
just over 11 percent of the world's population, was home to 68 percent of all adults
(22.5 million), 90 percent of all children living with the deadly virus, and 76 percent
of the deaths. Meanwhile, more than 2.9 million children and adults died of aIDS-
related illnesses. among young people aged 15 to 24 in the region, an estimated
61 percent of adults living with the disease in 2007 were women. nowhere in
africa has the virus affected as many lives and disrupted more social and economic
structures than in southern africa. Indeed, the region remains the epicentre of the
world's devastating aIDS epidemic (see table 8-1).
HIv/aIDS affects approximately 20 percent of the population aged 15 to 49,
in the region of southern africa, comprising Swaziland, lesotho, Malawi, Zambia,
Zimbabwe, South africa, botswana, namibia, and Mozambique. Nowhere in the
world has the virus hit on the same scale, devastating so many lives, destroying local
and national economies, undermining the limited healthcare services in place, and
taking a heavy toll on the social structures in its path. at least 22.5 million africans
have died of AIDS since the virus was first identified in 1981 ('AIDS in Africa'
2008; world bank 2008).
countries in the region continue to ponder how best to tackle this devastating
disease. For years, their slow, inadequate and
ad hoc
responses to the onslaught of
the disease profoundly exacerbated the already worsening situation. as alexander
de waal (2006, 9) notes:
aIDS kills millions every year, more than war and famine combined. It kills adults,
devastating families and leaving orphans. but governments are not being overthrown.
Indeed, with a few exceptions such as botswana, african leaders' responses lack urgency
and scale. Governments find resources for many things, but AIDS programmes are rarely
near the top of their list. there are straightforward reasons for this neglect. african
electors are not demanding that their governments make aIDS a priority. Society is
neither collapsing nor being transformed in revolutionary ways. african rulers, with a
sound appreciation of how power functions, know that they will not be removed from
office or even face political threats on account of AIDS.
