The Environmental and Social Influences of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Focus on Rural Communities

Abstract

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) pandemic has caused far-reaching effects in sub-Saharan Africa. The pandemic has effectively diminished the workforce, increased poverty rates, reduced agricultural productivity, and transformed the structure of many rural households. HIV/AIDS further strains the already fragile relationship between livelihood and the natural and social environments of these regions. Therefore, the objective of this review is to characterize the impact of HIV/AIDS on the environment and the social infrastructure of rural sub-Saharan Africa. There are many aspects of rural life that contribute to disease transmission of HIV/AIDS and that pose unique challenges to the population dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa. Widespread AIDS-related mortality has caused a decrease in population growth for many African countries. In turn, these alterations in population dynamics have resulted in a decrease in the percentage of prime-age working adults, as well as a gender disparity, whereby, females carry a growing burden of household responsibilities. There is a rising proportion of older adults, often females, who assume the role of provider and caretaker for other dependent family members. These changing dynamics have caused many to exploit their natural surroundings, adopting less sustainable land use practices and utilizing protected resources as a primary means of generating revenue.

HIV and Schistosoma haematobium prevalences correlate in sub‐Saharan Africa

“…; Oramasionwu et al . ). Schistosoma haematobium and HIV meet in migrating populations, travellers, commuting spouses and roadside rural and peri‐urban communities (Serwadda et al .…”

“…However, it has established itself in urban areas across Africa (Ugbomoiko et al 2010;Alirol et al 2011), most probably through infected migrants (Alirol et al 2011), with the presence of endemic foci in many large cities such as in Bamako, Mali, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania and Kampala, Uganda (Alirol et al 2011). In contrast, HIV is often considered an urban infection, but there are also important and emerging foci of HIV epidemics in African rural communities (Serwadda et al 1992;Oramasionwu et al 2011). Schistosoma haematobium and HIV meet in migrating populations, travellers, commuting spouses and roadside rural and peri-urban communities (Serwadda et al 1992;Alirol et al 2011).…”

Kenya’s Life Lessons through the Lived Experience of Rural Caregivers

“…While the previous list is not exhaustive, it does provide the reader a basic overview of the added pressure in rural areas throughout the world. In Kenya, a country in Sub-Saharan Africa, additional struggles are noted to include tribal strife, lack of access to clean water, reduced access to education, and the increasing number of deaths due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic (Govender et al 2012;Oramasionwu et al 2011; World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (2017)). Notably, HIV related deaths of parents have deprived many households of able-bodied members while leaving behind young orphans, cared for by older siblings, or cared for by other available family (Harrison et al 2014;Heymann and Kidman 2009;Lee et al 2014;Schatz and Seeley 2015).…”

Emerging and Reemerging Neglected Tropical Diseases: a Review of Key Characteristics, Risk Factors, and the Policy and Innovation Environment

“…That plague event was largely attributable to regional trade and societal influences, with overcrowding, poor hygiene, and destruction of the predator of the animal reservoir being leading causes for the rapid transmission of the illness (10). Human behavior and mobility can further be implicated in sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV disease (also originally caused by cross-species transmission), hepatitis, gonorrhea, syphilis, and others, including in the context of rural and low-income settings (11)(12)(13)(14). Immunosuppression due to HIV/AIDS coincided with the rise of opportunistic EIDs and ReIDs in the 1980s (3).…”