Hiv/Aids African Economy

HIV/AIDS, although not as prevalent a topic in North America, is a disease that has left the African continent devastated, both economically and socially. Both HIV/AIDS have had and continue to have an immense negative impact on the African population. Theses diseases have caused and are causing poverty, decreasing the size of the economy which is impacting citizens at both a macro and micro level, restructuring the livelihood of African households, and lastly HIV/AIDS are intensifying the phenomenon of inequality within the African context. To begin, one must look at what HIV/AIDS truly is in order to understand the full picture on how this disease can be detrimental to both people and an economy as a whole. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency …show more content…
The first major impact to the African economy is the deaths of people deemed to be within the prime of their working years. This means specifically that a majority of the AIDS related deaths are occurring in people from the ages of 14 to 49, causing issues within the employment sector and in the care for these people (HIV and AIDS). Over the years for example, many studies have noticed that people who are able and should be working are at home caring for those with the disease. On the employment side, HIV/AIDS has both direct and indirect costs associated with it. Indirect costs include: inability to work, liquidating savings, lower production, higher levels of staff turnover and an increased training costs for employers. Direct costs would be the cost of treatment by both the individual and the governing bodies, which has the potential to cause issues in national budgets. In Africa, there are two main economic sectors that are being largely impacted by HIV/AIDS. In a study conducted by the Food and Agricultural Organization they found that, 27% of the workers in the mining sector and 22% of those working in the storage sector were expected to die by the year of 2005 which was merely a three year projection as they had completed their research in 2002. They also researched the impact of HIV/AIDS on the agricultural sector, a sector where few scholars had previously focused their attention. This organization’s research found a large disparity in the amount of specialized workers, noting that 7 million agriculture workers had died between 1985 and 2002 and that from 2002 to 2020 another 16 million African farmers were projected to lose their lives (Drimie). With a shrinking agricultural population the African economy faces many problems. The first of these problems is the issue of food security. If the agricultural sector becomes less productive in Africa, the governments will