A Perspective of Poverty and HIV on Sub-Saharan Africa

In South Africa, AIDS is one of the top causes of death. South Africa has the biggest AIDS/HIV epidemic in the world because of violence against women, poverty, and lack of education. Given this, “Africans account for nearly 70% of those who live with HIV and are dying of AIDS” (Morgenstern, Dr. Michael).

Nearly three decades ago, there was an increase in deaths of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Developing countries have experienced the greatest HIV/AIDS morbidity and mortality, with the highest prevalence rates recorded in young adults in sub-Saharan Africa. In South Africa over three million people are killed by this disease (Macfarlene3). After this epidemic spreaded in Africa and killed people it branched out to other countries in the world.

The world as a whole should be mortified by what is happening in Sub-Saharan Africa. In places like Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho poverty, crime and systematic corruption are the tinder for the fire that is the HIV epidemic in Africa.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS is a pandemic problem affecting global health. At the end of 2015, 36.7 million people were living with HIV/AIDS globally. The rate of incidence is more prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa with almost 1 in every 24 adults living with HIV/AIDS. In the united states, HIV/AIDS is a diversified health problem affecting all sexes, ages and races and involving the transmission of multiple risk behavior. However, with the introduction of various prevention programs and antiretroviral drugs, the incidence of HIV/AIDS has reduced.

In the sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of the population suffers from HIV leading to AIDS. The culprits responsible for this epidemic include the lack of knowledge about the disease, disuse of condoms due to religious practices and the overall poor hygiene. If left untreated, the rampant surge of AIDS can terrribly impact the cost of their healthcare, the African economy and the welfare of the people. This implications justify immediately finding remedies to what ails the sub-Saharan population.

The third cause of the spread of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa are the religious factors of the region, which play a key role in the spread of the disease. In 2009, Pope Benedict, during his trip in Africa banned the use of condoms (medwiser, 2017). This directly helped to increase the spread of AIDS, as the Catholics in the region had more of an incentive to have unprotected sex. In 2008, Muslim leaders had shared a similar view with the Pope (medwiser, 2017). The umbrella Somali Ulema Council said it would use Sharia (Islamic) Law, including flogging, to punish those selling or using condoms. According to Sheikh Nur Barud, who is the chairman of the Somali Ulema Council, “ the use of condoms will increase adultery

From study of United Nations, there were 40 million people in the world living with infection of HIV. Sadly, seventy percent, or 28 million of them lived in sub–Saharan Africa; there are countries in that area have forty percent of population infected and living their life with despair. HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) could destroy the immune system that our bodies use to fight off diseases in 10 years; breaking down of the immune system means that we are unable to fight the infections and causes death. In early 1990’s, GSK (GlaxoSmithKline), BMS (Bristol-Myers Squibb) and some other companies developed a series of medicine which could attack HIV in patient’s body; and later in 1996, Dr. David Ho discovered that by taking a combination of

Sub-Saharan Africa has the most serious HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world. In 2013, an estimated 24.7 million people were living with HIV, accounting for 71% of the global total. In the same year, there were an estimated 1.5 million new HIV infections and 1.1 million AIDS-related deaths. The second largest country most impacted by HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa is Lesotho.

There are abounding countries in the world that struggle with the rate of HIV/AIDS. One of these countries being the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although Democratic Republic of Congo is not one of the top ten African countries with HIV/AIDS, they have had a massive spread throughout the years. Even though they have done many things to try to prevent the spread, rates are still high.

The World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory estimates that 78 million people have been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) during the course of the epidemic, and that 39 million men, women, and children have died.1 Nearly 1 in 20 adults in sub-Saharan Africa are currently living with the infection. HIV represents one of the world’s most serious health problems.

HIV can and will infect anyone who comes into contact with it. There are 1.1 million people in the United States that are infected with HIV but that number is small when looking at it as a global pandemic. Globally, the World Health Organization estimates that there are 35 million living with HIV (who.int). Greater than 2/3 of people infected with HIV live in the Sub-Saharan Africa region (amfar.org). The people in this particular region do not have access to healthcare, clean water or HIV prevention methods such as condoms. Statistics also reveal that black men and women are more at risk for becoming infected with HIV due to poor economic status and under

Sub-Saharan Africa has the most serious HIV and AIDS plague in the world. Around 27.4% of people were living with HIV and AIDS in the year of 2013. Also, there were 1.1 million AIDS-related deaths and over 1.5 million new HIV infections in the same year. While Swaziland has the highest HIV prevalence worldwide, South Africa has the biggest epidemic out of any country.

At the end of 2009, an estimated 33.3 million people globally were living with HIV. In that year alone, there were an estimated 1.8 million AIDS-related deaths and 2.6 million new HIV infections. Data from 2009 shows that the AIDS epidemic is beginning to change course as the number of people newly infected with HIV is declining and AIDS –related deaths are decreasing. This is in large part due to more people living longer as access to antiretroviral theraphy increases, but these gains remain fragile and disparities continue to exist among countries and within countries. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region most affected with 69% of all new infections and in seven mostly Eastern European and Central Asian countries, new HIV infection rates have increased by 25%.

2.4 million people died of an AIDS-related illness in Africa, and since the beginning of

HIV is a virus that is spread almost all over the world. Although in some places health care isn’t as developed and therefore it spreads more in those regions. Sub-Saharan Africa holds more than 70%, 25 million, of all HIV positive people in the world. Second highest is Eastern Europe together with Central Asia with 1.3 million. It is spread over most of the world, including Asia and the Pacific, the Caribbean, Central and South America, North Africa and the Middle East and Western and Central Europe (“The Regional Picture”).