The HIV-AIDS Epidemic in Africa

This article is not an attempt to explain the HIV-AIDS epidemic nor is it my proposal for any miraculous solutions to the epidemic which seems all too often to be out of control. I feel though that sharing information is a first step toward any meaningful dialog. Without dialog there is no chance for stopping the continuing downward spiral and certainly no chance of improving the condition of the millions of Africans living with and dying from this disease.

For many in the West, AIDS is a difficult but treatable disease which definitely means an altered lifestyle and a cocktail of drugs for life; but is no longer the “killer” that it was in the late 1980’s and 1990’s.

Unfortunately, for millions of Africans it is a completely different story. For the vast majority of Africans who are diagnosed with the HIV virus, it is a certain death sentence. Considering that over 70 percent of all adults and 80 percent of all children currently living with AIDS live in Sub-Saharan Africa, it has become a disease of epidemic proportions.

In the year 2001 alone, over 2.1 million Africans died of AIDS-related causes and over 68% of them were from just 8 countries in Africa. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe alone accounted for over 1.5 million deaths due to AIDS. The statistics are frightening.

It is vital though to remember that each of the more than 2 million weren’t just numbers. They were mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters. They were caretakers and income earners for their families. They were the youth and futures of their nations.

HIV is without a doubt a virus which is wreaking havoc on the bodies of Africans. Most of its victims on the continent cannot afford drugs even to relieve their pain or suffering; not to mention the expensive drug cocktails which are given out systematically to its victims in the West. Additionally, the virus is a direct cause of family breakup, economic hardship and a strain on social and governmental infrastructures. It is clearly a major challenge which seems to be overburdening family and economic structures.

Although a few African countries are making progress in face of the enormous challenges that HIV/AIDS is causing, the majority of governments are simply overtaxed and unable to cope. We will discuss the success stories such as that of Uganda and Senegal in an upcoming article. Of course, we will not leave out the tragic cases of countries on the opposite end of the spectrum such as South Africa either. It is also very important that we address the complex and lasting impact of AIDS on Africa’s children. That will be the subject of the next article in this series on HIV/AIDS. But in this article, I would like to simply list some of the numerous impacts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on Africans and their hopes for the future. It will serve as a sort of reference guide of the basic information and statistics which we will elaborate on in the following articles.

Statistical information on HIV/AIDS in Africa. These statistics only address those countries with which Mama Afrika currently trades.

Country	Total Population (in millions)	Life Expectancy	Percent of Adults (age 15-49) with AIDS	Women with AIDS	Children with AIDS
Ghana	19.3	56.8	3%	170,000	34,000
Mali	11.4	51.5	1.65%	54,000	13,000
Uganda	23.3	44	5%	280,000	110,000
Eritrea	3.7	52	2.8%	30,000	4,000
Lesotho	2	45.7	31%	180,000	27,000
South Africa	43.3	52.1	20.1%	2,700,000	250,000
Rwanda	7.6	40.2	8.88%	250,000	65,000

As you can see from the statistics above, there is a serious problem concerning HIV-AIDS in many African countries. Any society with over 5 percent of its population inflicted with such a serious disease would find they had trouble building a promising future for its youth. In countries like Lesotho which has 31 percent of the population infected with AIDS, it more than just an obstacle. It is instead a major issue which concerns close every family in the nation. Those who are not infected certainly know someone personally who is. It seems that no one is untouched by the problem.

Now let us consider that in addition to the sheer numbers of citizens in need of healthcare, there are also a host of other challenges which make matters worse. Here are just a few:

• Lack of access to sanitation and clean water.
• Other diseases such as malaria or cholera which complicate treatment and further drain financial and human resources.
• Insufficient access to drugs due to the pharmaceutical community’s refusal to offer low-cost or free HIV-AIDS treatments to poor African governments.
• High illiteracy rates in many communities which complicates education campaigns.
• Deeply grounded religious and cultural beliefs which make dialogue about sexual practices taboo.
• Scarce infrastructure such as television or radios which retard prevention campaigns.
• Breakdown of family structures due to other issues such as war, famine, etc which make families incapable of caring for ill family members.
• Very high doctor or nurse to patient ratios which make it impossible or very difficult for patients to see health service workers on a regular basis in order to follow treatment.

To give you an idea of the difference here are some numbers for you to consider:

Country	Number of doctors per 100,000 people
United States	279
Canada	229
France	303
United Kingdom	164
South Africa	56
Lesotho	5
Eritrea	3
Rwanda	?
Ghana	6

The African AIDS crisis is a subject which you will be reading more about soon here. It is a serious issue which we will continue to discuss, debate, and make an effort to understand its complexities. We will only then be able to really address the ways in which each of us can act to improve the situation for those Africans struggling to survive this horrible epidemic.