Zim economy impacts on Aids
2005-11-21 12:43
Special Report
The South African government has announced a joint venture to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs with a Swiss company.
Harare - A deepening economic crisis in Zimbabwe is masking the impact of HIV/Aids in the troubled southern African nation, campaigners against Aids say.
Fewer patients suffering from Aids-related illnesses can afford either treatment or transportation to hospitals and clinics, making accurate reporting of cases more difficult, they say.
Acute food shortages in the crumbling economy have left sufferers malnourished and more vulnerable to sickness and a hastened death, according to Aids support groups.
The UN reported on Monday that Zimbabwe, along with Kenya and Uganda, had a recorded decline in adult national HIV prevalence.
"Each of these countries, however, remains saddled with a large, potentially ruinous epidemic," the UN said in its annual report on the global Aids pandemic.
Based on surveillance of women attending maternity facilities, Zimbabwe recorded a decline from an estimated 26% of the population infected with the virus that causes Aids in 2002 to 21% last year in the age group 15-49.
Campaign to ease stigma
Changes in sexual behavior appear to have contributed to the decline, the report said.
But it acknowledged that collecting accurate data on the rate of infection in the 12.5m population was hindered by poor responses in household surveys and a widespread reluctance throughout southern Africa to undergo voluntary HIV testing.
Data from maternity facilities did not capture evidence of HIV prevalence among men, among women younger and older than child-bearing ages, or among sexually active adults practicing safe sex in traditionally polygamous African societies.
The Centre, an Aids support group in Harare, has campaigned to ease a common stigma associated with HIV infection in Africa which, it says, leads to denial and misleading statistics on Aids-related illness and deaths.
With spiraling inflation, up to 411% last month, and acute shortages of food and gasoline in Zimbabwe, attendance at health facilities has dropped. The costs of transportation fares and of medication for infections among Aids sufferers have soared.
Average life expectancy 38
A recent report by The Centre noted illnesses were nursed at home and many burials in rural and remote areas went unrecorded.
Official figures in Zimbabwe show the Aids pandemic has lowered average life expectancy to 38, from 69 after independence in 1980. About half the deaths of children under the age of 5 are linked to mother-to-child HIV infection.
Studies by the World Health Organisation show just 15 000 Zimbabweans are receiving antiretroviral drugs.
Between July and October, the price of a monthly course of the drugs rose from Z$200 000 (US$3) to Z$1.2m (US$20).
Although the government licensed local firms to manufacture generic Aids drugs, acute shortages of hard currency have stopped imports of raw materials and held back a government programme to treat 55 000 patients through public health services.
The nation's economic meltdown has been blamed on government mismanagement, corruption and the disruptions in the agriculture-based economy caused by the often violent seizures of 5 000 white-owned commercial farms since 2000.
- SAPA