PRESENTATION OUTLINE
History
1. It was in Kinshasa in the 1970s that the first epidemic of HIV/AIDS is believed to have occurred. 2. A complex computer model of the evolution of HIV-1 has suggested that the first transfer of SIV to humans occurred around 1930. 3. HIV-2 transferring from monkeys found in Guinea-Bissau, at some point in the 1940s. 4.Studies of primates in other continents did not find any trace of SIV, leading to the conclusion that HIV originated in Africa.
Spread
1. The accelerated spread in the region was due to a combination of widespread labour migration, high ratio of men in the urban populations, low status of women, & lack of circumcision. 2.Uganda was hit very hard by the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. 3. By this time doctors were aware of AIDS cases with similar symptoms in the United States. 4. By the end of the decade HIV prevalence amongst pregnant women in Uganda’s capital had peaked at over 30 percent
Orphans
1. There are more than 34 million orphans in the region today and some 11 million of them are orphaned by AIDS. 2. During the last decade, the proportion of children who are orphaned as a result of AIDS rose from 3.5% to 32%. 3. As a result, the disease is in effect making orphans of a whole generation of children, jeopardizing their health, their rights, their well-being and sometimes their very survival. 4. The AIDS epidemic contributes to deepening poverty in many communities, since the burden of caring for the vast majority of orphans falls on already overstretched extended families
Economic impact
1. The long period of illness associated with AIDS reduces labor productivity. 2. Lower domestic productivity reduces exports, while imports of expensive healthcare goods may increase. 3. Economic models show that the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa will have long term economic consequences. 4. The more recent studies show greater effects; and the most recent estimates indicate that the pandemic has reduced average national growth rates by 2-4% a year across Africa.
Antiretrovirals
1. At a cost of $10,000-15,000 per person per year it would have cost sub-Saharan countries between 9% and 67% of their GDP to provide triple combination therapy to everybody living with HIV in their countries. 2. This was impossible for the majority of African nations and the disparity in treatment options angered many people for whom treatment was too expensive. 3. Also, this treatment was demanding of clinical services and many governments did not have the healthcare infrastructure to manage large-scale treatment programs. 4. in 1994, that the antiretroviral drug zidovudine (AZT) could reduce mother-to-child transmission by two-thirds
