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Aids warning for Lesotho
30/08/2004 13:16 - (SA)
Maseru - HIV/Aids could reverse most of the development in Lesotho since independence and could drive the country into extreme poverty, the Central Bank of Lesotho has warned.
The impact of the disease is being felt at all levels, with prolonged illness inducing financial hardships in many ways, said the bank's Economic Review for the first quarter of 2004, released last week.
Households may have to increase their health care expenditure.
"This may be particularly acute in Lesotho where the use of medical aid schemes may not be so widespread," the report read.
One in three infected
The inability to continue productive activities, such as employment and subsistence farming, may worsen the situation and the prospect of a sick family member being a breadwinner or an important source of income could considerably increase the suffering of a household.
A combination of rising health care costs and loss of income could force families into unsustainable debt to meet daily household needs.
Funerals impose additional costs, the review said.
It showed that children from affected families, some orphaned, may be forced out of school due to financial difficulties, leading to a socio-economic problems relating to social deprivation
This could result in increased crime while the country's human resources are depleted.
The disease also had adverse implications for the private sector.
A combination of lower profit margins and increased recruitment and training costs had the potential to discourage investment, the review noted.
"This does not augur well for the development of the country and the government's poverty reduction efforts."
By increasing the mortality rate, the disease would reduce the country's labour force, as the infection rate was high among the most productive section of the population.
"Since this directly affects the country's productive capacity, it has the potential to lower the country's economic growth rate and output, and thereby hinder its development prospects."
It was also likely to strain government resources as increased funding for HIV/Aids patients would be needed. Demand for government support for education would increase.
The review warned that as the pandemic pushed some households into poverty, the government may be forced to divert funding from other projects to assist to the affected families.
"This can negatively affect the fiscal balance and thereby the development of the country," the bank's researchers said.
The government of Lesotho has declared HIV/Aids a national disaster and set a goal of cutting the adult prevalence rate from 31% by 2008.
Nearly one in three Basotho adults aged 15-49 is infected with HIV. In 2001, life expectancy at birth was 38.6 years, almost half of what it was in 1990.
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