The consequences of AIDS for women and children in Africa
Kiereini, E.M.
Tvz Het Vakblad Voor de Verpleging 11: 382-385
1991
ISSN/ISBN: 0303-6456 PMID: 2069727 Document Number: 320989
In Africa the AIDS epidemic is primarily spread by heterosexual sexual contact. According to WHO estimates 400,000 Africans contracted AIDS in the last 10 years and approximately 3,500,000 equally divided among both sexes are infected with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). About 600,000 of them are children 5. Child mortality is projected to increase by 50% in the next 10 years attributable to a further spread of HIV among women who will contaminate their children. Currently, there are more than 1 million African children 10 who are not infected but whose mothers are. There are ominous implications both for women in the traditional role and for working African women on the infrastructure in addition to the anxiety of contracting HIV, the impact on future pregnancies, and the stigma of AIDS victims who are ostracized from society. The case of a woman whose husband recently died of AIDS and who is suffering from ARC (AID-related complex) is detailed. Her twin daughters aged almost 2 are also seropositive. At a clinic an AIDS worker informed her that she and her daughters had 1 or 2 more years to live. AIDS has placed a double burden on the shoulders of African women: to prevent AIDS as care providers and to help the victims, especially because governments and organizations do not provide much support. Committed women who organize to overcome social injustice intrinsic in the suffering of AIDS victims can develop the fighting spirit to better their lives.