Environmental

dimension of
HIV/AIDS
This material was extracted from The United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization and been modified for any purpose it
may serve.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 Introduction 02 Approaches

HIV/AIDS to Prevention of HIV/AIDS

03 Impacts 04 HIV/AIDS

of HIV/AIDS in Society related to Poverty

 What is HIV and AIDS?

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), is a virus, a

small infectious agent that multiplies itself by taking
control of cells inside a host.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome AIDS, on the

other hand, is a syndrome, a group of connected
symptoms that are usually caused by a single
disease or virus.

https://www.britannica.com
 When will HIV be
developed into AIDS?
AIDS is diagnosed when HIV has
depleted the number of helper T cells to
below 200 cells per microliter of blood,
allowing opportunistic infections, or
infections that target a compromised
immune system, to arise in a patient.
 It passes from person-to-person through
infected body fluids
How is HIV
transmitted?
● Unprotected sex(semen, vaginai fluids, blood)

● Shared drug injection needles (blood)

● Breastfeeding (breast milk)

● Contaminated blood and blood products

How to avoid infection

● Know your HIV status and your partner’s status

● Avoid vaginal and anal sex

● Limit sex to one uninfected partner

● Use latex condoms

● Avoid injectable drugs or shared needles

● Avoid intoxication from drugs or alcohol

Mitigating the
Impacts of
HIV/AIDS on
Education
Systems
 The Impacts of HIV/AIDS on People and Societies

In all of our countries, HIV/AIDS is

Reversing decades of health, economic and social progress
Reducing life expectancy
Slowing economic growth
Deepening poverty
Contributing to and exacerbating food shortages
Creating a growing human capacity crisis
Enhancing gender inequities by affecting women and girls more
than men and boys
 Are the Impacts Due to AIDS?

Fairly clear that illness and death may be due to AIDS (though AIDS may
not be acknowledged as the cause)
The same with orphanhood.
But in many cases it may be very difficult to separate out what is due to
other factors and what is due to HIV/AIDS

AIDS impacts entangled with those of poverty, female disadvantage, poor

economies, climate, public corruption, unbalanced North-South
relationships
But HIV/AIDS increases the scale of almost every existing problem,
making it more difficult to deal with —just as HIV makes it difficult for the
body to deal with infections it would otherwise be able to manage
 What We are Up Against in HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS confronts us with two situations:

• The disease: the medical conditions of HIV infection
and/or AIDS in individuals

• The social and developmental problem: the social and

developmental conditions and impacts that follow on from
the disease, especially when it becomes widespread with
infected individuals being found throughout a community and
eventually across a country or region
 Global Emphasis on Medical and Behavioral Approaches

• Current dominant global models focus on HIV/AIDS

EITHER as a medical issue that requires a biomedical response;
OR as a condition resulting from human behavior practices and
hence requiring a response that focuses on aspects of human
behavior

Both points of view are valid but whether taken separately or

together they deal with only part of the AIDS problem
This limitation has contributed to global failure to respond
adequately to the epidemic
• Both points of view are valid but whether taken separately or
together they deal with only part of the AIDS problem
• This limitation has contributed to global failure to respond
adequately to the epidemic
 Behavioral Approaches to Prevention

The majority of current approaches are based essentially on the

modification of individual behavior

They address the obvious risks of sex and injecting drug use, and
factors that increase personal vulnerability (e.g., ignorance or peer
pressure)

They follow a logical pattern, as if HIV risk-reducing decisions

were always rational and seldom emotional
They take almost no account of non-western world views—their
uniform context is that of the homogenized, individual, western
cultural world

They deal only marginally with the underlying issues & contextual
features of joblessness, helpless economies, female disadvantage,
responding to youth needs, facing up to poverty, grassroots
voicelessness
 Taking a Holistic Approach

An adequate conceptual framework for the

developmental impacts of HIV/AIDS (and for
responding to them) must take due account of the
economic, social, cultural, environmental and
political factors that render individuals and
communities vulnerable
This implies going beyond the symptoms of
infection, sickness and behaviours that contribute to
these and looking to the factors that underlie the
infection, sickness and behaviours

It means asking about the roots of the problem

Instead of focusing narrowly on HIV/AIDS as a

stand-alone issue, there is need to see it as arising
within the complexities of poverty, gender
inequalities, cultural determinants, religious
understandings, environmental questions
 HIV/AIDS Impacts on Various Aspects of Society

ECONOMY EDUCATION

LABOUR GOVERNANCE

HIV/AIDS spreads into

MANAGEMENT the general population CULTURE,
VALUES,
=
BELIEFS
Epidemic, with a variety SOCIAL
AGRICULTURE of impacts DEVELOPMENT

HEALTH
ENVIRONMENT
 Human Development

• Human development is about creating an

environment in which people can develop their full
potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord
with their values, needs and interests
• The most basic capabilities for human development
are to
Lead long and healthy lives
Be knowledgeable
Have access to the resources needed to maintain a
decent standard of living
Be able to participate in the life of the community
• HIV/AIDS undermines each of these
 A Long and Healthy Life

• Where HIV/AIDS is prevalent, there is little prospect

that people will be able to lead a long and healthy life
• Life expectancy falls to dramatically low levels (see
next slide)
• Child mortality rates remain alarmingly high
• AIDS enlarges the impact of other threats to health
such as TB or malaria
• Coping with AIDS issues overwhelms health services
• AIDS claims the lives of numerous medical service
personnel
• Applying anti-retroviral therapy makes extensive
demands on the small number of doctors, nurses and
health-care workers in all of our countries
 HIV/AIDS and Human Capacity

• HIV/AIDS affects human capacity in different ways:

 It robs sectors, enterprises and undertakings of
qualified and experienced personnel
 It creates the need for additional personnel (e.g. in
nursing care)
 It creates the need for persons with new
understandings and skills
 Because of the way it removes young and productive
adults, it has negative effects on the transfer of skills
 Have Access to the Resources Needed
to Maintain a Decent Standard of Living

• Poverty is widespread and is closely related to

HIV/AIDS
• However, AIDS is not a disease of poor countries
• Neither is it a disease of poor people, but
the poor are at higher risk of HIV infection
the poor are more vulnerable to HIV infection
the disease makes the poor poorer
How Poverty and HIV/AIDS Relate to Each Other

HIV/AIDS and Poverty

Poor at high Poor more Poor becoming

risk of vulnerable to poorer
HIV infection HIV infection because of HIV infection

on health on socio-economic because of what costs incomes resources

grounds grounds it means increase and resources are spent
to be poor decrease on HIV/AIDS
 HIV/AIDS Increases Costs

• Costs of goods and services increase as enterprises

raise costs to offset those arising from HIV/AIDS:
lower productivity
smaller markets
increased medical costs
high funeral costs
early payment of terminal benefits
higher insurance costs
in-house HIV/AIDS education programs
 HIV/AIDS Diverts National and Institutional
Resources

• Additional national resources absorbed by AIDS care

and responses, at the cost of important medical and
other needs
• Medical, personnel, agency and NGO resources
diverted to AIDS issues
• Already limited and over-stretched public capacity is
further extended with AIDS concerns
 HIV/AIDS Impacts at the Household Level:
Some Issues

• Impacts are almost always very severe emotionally—distress,

shock, anger, denial, grief, stigma, isolation
• The disease has severe implications for household well-being:
• Income reduction (job loss; reduced ability of infected person
to work and produce; time spent on patient care is time taken
from productive activities)
• Increased health-related expenditures (medicines, special
foodstuffs, soap and cleaning materials, clinic-related use of
resources & time—patient transport, getting medicines)
 Girls, Young Women and HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS has a disproportionate impact on girls and young women

They are at They are They are

higher risk more vulnerable to more extensively affected
of HIV infection HIV infection when HIV/AIDS is present

on physiological on social on economic Girls are taken out of school

and health grounds grounds Women's burden of care
grounds Must work even if infected
Do not have access to ARVs