by Alicia M Prater PhD

Created on: October 02, 2007

The AIDS situation in Africa is truly an epidemic. In 2006, 72% of worldwide AIDS related deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently over 50% of all AIDS patients live in Africa, mostly women and children, and the rapidly growing demand for treatment will soon exceed available human and financial resources if it continues at its current rate. Life expectancy, once improving, has fallen by more than 15 years in five African countries and by six-to-15 years in nine others. A child born today in Zambia can expect to live for only 32 years, if they survive into adulthood at all. Infant mortality is again on the rise in several African countries, due to HIV infection and reduced care resulting from parental deaths. A child whose mother dies is 3.3 times more likely to die herself; more than 12 million African children have been orphaned due to AIDS.

This has an impact on the African economy and the fate of the continent. Agricultural production in Kenya, for example, is projected to drop by 2.4 per cent by 2010. Zambia could lose 20 per cent of its workforce by 2020. In Nigeria 20% of those currently living with AIDS are civil servants and Mozambique may lose more than 19,000 teachers to AIDS in the years between 2000 and 2010.

The scope of the epidemic in Africa brings to light how detrimental a widespread infection can be. Outbreaks of drug resistant Tuberculosis in HIV positive patients, not just in Africa, are spreading and could infect the non-HIV population as well. Preventing further spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa will help curb further opportunistic pathogens from entering the general populace through mutation.

There are barriers to successful prevention of infection in Africa. Inadequate resources including a lack of hospitals and clinics, equipment, and medicine; short tracked prevention activities with little or no monitoring; and testing and counseling facilities are available only to about 24% of the region's population. There is insufficient education among health care providers and among teachers about HIV/ AIDS, resulting in their inability to relay accurate information. Even hen they are educated enough about prevention though there is a failure to take socio-cultural factors into account in prevention programs including sensitivities about open discussion of sex in many societies resulting in community boycotting of outside health workers and condom use.

There is also stigma and discrimination against those living with HIV and AIDS. Testing plays a

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