Causes of HIV Epidemic
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) are deadly disease and pose one of the greatest challenges to global public health. As a blood borne and sexually transmitted infection, HIV has variable patterns of transmission and impact among world regions and has disproportionately affected disadvantaged or marginalized persons such as commercial sex workers, injection drug users, men who have sex with men (MSM), and persons living in poverty.
Sub Sahara Africa (SSA) is the region of the world most severely affected by HIV and AIDS. Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania were among the countries where the HIV epidemic was first recognized during the early 1980s. In 2000, an estimated 25.3 million persons in SSA were infected with HIV, and the average national prevalence of HIV infection among persons aged 15-49 years was 8.8%. Approximately four million new infections occurred during 2000. Approximately 10% of persons aged 15-49 years are infected in 16 countries, including seven in southern and eastern Africa, where approximately 20% are infected. In Botswana, the country with the highest prevalence, 36% of the adult population is infected with HIV.
Effects of HIV Epidemic
The most immediate effect of the HIV epidemic is to increase the crude death rate for the populations affected. These will be higher where HIV prevalence is higher, which in sub-Saharan Africa is in the Eastern and Southern regions where the epidemic is most mature. By the year 2010 the crude death rate is projected to be 6 times higher in Zimbabwe, 4 time higher in Botswana and 3 time greater in Zambia than it would have been in the absence of AIDS.
It is now accepted that the HIV epidemic has multiple and complex effects on sustainable human development.........
