HIV/AIDS in Africa
HIV/AIDS originated in the early 20th century and has become a major public health concern and cause of death in many countries. AIDS rates varies significantly between countries, with the majority of cases concentrated in Southern Africa. Although the continent is home to about 15.2 percent of the world's population,[1] more than two-thirds of the total population infected worldwide – approximately 35 million people – were Africans, of whom around 1 million have already died.[2] Eastern and Southern Africa alone accounted for an estimate of 60 percent of all people living with HIV[3] and 100 percent of all AIDS deaths in 2011.[4] The countries of Eastern and Southern Africa are most affected, leading to raised death rates and lowered life expectancy among adults between the ages of 20 and 49 by about twenty years.[2] Furthermore, life expectancy in many parts of Africa is declining, largely as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with life-expectancy in some countries reaching as low as thirty-nine years.[5][6]
Countries in North Africa, West Africa and the Horn of Africa have significantly low prevalence rates, as their populations typically engage in fewer high-risk cultural patterns that promote the spread of the virus in other parts of Africa. Southern Africa is the worst affected region on the continent. As of 2011, HIV has infected at least 10 percent of the population in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
In response, a number of initiatives have been launched in various parts of the continent to educate the public on HIV/AIDS. Among these are combination prevention programs, considered to be the most effective initiative, such as the abstinence, be faithful, use a condom campaign or the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation's outreach programs.[7]
The number of HIV positive people in Africa receiving anti-retroviral treatment in 2012 were over seven times the number receiving treatment in 2005, with nearly 1 million added in the previous year.[8][9]: 15 Between 2000 and 2018, new HIV infections fell by 37%, and HIV-related deaths fell by 45% with 13.6 million lives saved due to ART in the same period. This achievement was the result of great efforts by national HIV programmes supported by civil society and a range of development partners. It reported that 1.1 million people have been newly infected with HIV in 2018.[10] An estimated 420,000 [340,000−530,000] people died in the African Region from HIV-related causes from 1985-2021, implying that mortality has dropped by approximately 55% since 2010.[11]
Causes and spread[edit]
Behavioral factors[edit]
High-risk behavioral patterns are largely responsible for the significantly greater spread of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa than in other parts of the world. Chief among these are the traditionally liberal attitudes espoused by many communities inhabiting the subcontinent toward multiple sexual partners and pre-marital and outside marriage sexual activity.[41][42] HIV transmission is most likely in the first few weeks after infection, and is therefore increased when people have more than one sexual partner in the same time period. In most of the developed world outside Africa, this means HIV transmission is high among prostitutes and other people who may have more than one sexual partner concurrently. Within the cultures of sub-Saharan Africa, it is relatively common for both men and women to be carrying on sexual relations with more than one person, which promotes HIV transmission.[23] This practice is known as concurrency, which Helen Epstein describes in her book, The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight against AIDS, in which her research into the sexual mores of Uganda revealed the high frequency with which men and women engage in concurrent sexual relationships.[43] In addition, in sub-Saharan Africa AIDS is the leading killer and a large reason for the high transmission rates is because of the lack of education provided to youth. When infected, most children die within one year because of the lack of treatment.[44] All demographic populations in Sub-Saharan Africa have been infected with HIV, from men to women, and from pregnant woman to children. Rather than having more of a specific group infected, male or female, the ratio of men and women infected with HIV are quite similar. With the HIV infection, 77% of men, women, and children, develop AIDS, and die in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, "more than 90% of AIDS orphans and children [were] infected with HIV".[45]
Lack of money is an obvious challenge, although a great deal of aid is distributed throughout developing countries with high HIV/AIDS rates. For African countries with advanced medical facilities, patents on many drugs have hindered the ability to make low cost alternatives.[46]
Natural disasters and conflict are also major challenges, as the resulting economic problems people face can drive many young women and girls into patterns of sex work in order to ensure their livelihood or that of their family, or else to obtain safe passage, food, shelter or other resources.[47] Emergencies can also lead to greater exposure to HIV infection through new patterns of sex work. In Mozambique, an influx of humanitarian workers and transporters, such as truck drivers, attracted sex workers from outside the area.[47] Similarly, in the Turkana District of northern Kenya, drought led to a decrease in clients for local sex workers, prompting the sex workers to relax their condom use demands and search for new truck driver clients on main highways and in peri-urban settlements.[47]
Health industry[edit]
Sub-Saharan "Africans have always appreciated the importance of health care because good health is seen as necessary for the continuation and growth of their lineage".[48] Without proper health the culture will not be able to thrive and grow. Unfortunately, "health services in many countries are swamped by the need to care for increasing numbers of infected and sick people. Ameliorative drugs are too expensive for most victims, except for a very small number who are affluent".[48] The greatest number of sick people with the fewest doctors, Sub-Saharan Africa "has 11 percent of the world's population but carries 24 percent of the global disease burden. With less than 1 percent of global health expenditure and only 3 percent of the world's health workers".
Health care delivery[edit]
While there is currently no cure or vaccine for HIV/AIDS there are emerging treatments. It has been extensively discussed that antiretroviral drugs (ART) are crucial for preventing the acquiring of AIDS. AIDS is acquired at the final stage of the HIV virus, which can be completely averted. It is overwhelmingly possible to live with the virus and never acquire AIDS. The proper obedience to ART drugs can provide an infected person with a limitless future. ART drugs are key in preventing the diseases from progressing as well as ensuring the disease is well controlled, thus forbidding the disease from becoming resistant to the treatments.[67] In countries like Nigeria and the Central African Republic, a mere less than 25% of the population has access to the ART drugs.[68] Funds devoted to ART drug access were measured at $19.1 billion in 2013 in low and middle-income countries among the region, however the funds were short of the UNAIDS' previous resource needs estimates of $22–24 billion by 2015.[69]