Rose Byamutuma
29 September 2008
opinion
After 25 years of a generalised HIV epidemic in Uganda, a lot of progress in terms of mitigating the effects of the disease has been made. People who have contracted HIV can now live longer and enjoy healthier lives - thanks to the advent and increased access to antiretroviral drugs.
Consequently, HIV/Aids has since significantly evolved from being an automatic death sentence upon being diagnosed and found to be HIV positive to a chronically manageable disease that you can live with for a long time.
This achievement is, however, is often overshadowed by poverty that characterises the majority of people living with HIV/Aids. In Uganda like many other countries where HIV/Aids infection level is high, the majority of people living with HIV/Aids are among the poorest.
While poverty increases the incidences of the spread of HIV virus by undermining people, especially women's ability to protect themselves, HIV/Aids itself escalates poverty levels. It leads to an increase in expenditure on health as households exhaust their meagre resources catering for their relative living with the virus. Besides, HIV/Aids mainly affect people in productive age bracket (15-49 year olds) and who in most cases are the income earners for their households.
For Antiretroviral therapy to be effective, many issues, including the wellbeing of people living with HIV/Aids, needs to be addressed. Requirements such as good feeding and routine visits to health facilities for review and counselling to reduce stress are all dependant on the availability of money.
Although poverty is not a preserve of people living with HIV/Aids, there is no doubt that it compounds their situation most. Not only do they have to cope which the psychosocial distress of suffering from an incurable disease that also results in their stigmatisation in society, but poor health also compromises their ability to work.
Moreover, the economic consequences of HIV/Aids usually go beyond the individual living with the disease - its impact stretches to their children, spouses as well as the extended family. It is common to find children from a family where parents are living with HIV/Aids dropping out of school since they (children) usually find it difficult raising basic school requirements even with UPE and USE programmes in place. Such a scenario sustains the cycle of poverty and HIV/Aids.
Like other special groups, people living with HIV/Aids need assistance so as to be able to establish and sustain income generating activities. Programmes such as Bonabagaggawale aimed at eradicating poverty in the country should ensure that it involves people living with HIV.
Their economic empowerment has a number of benefits; it will enable them to regain independence economically - something that could raise their self esteem. Empowering them economically can also go a long way in improving their health conditions.
With improved incomes, people living with HIV/Aids will be able to eat better and afford paying for their medications as well as transport fare to health facilities for their routine check ups. All these are pertinent to the notion of positive living that is promoted by all providers of HIV/Aids services.
Despite all its benefits, income generation has been neglected as a critical aspect of HIV/Aids care and support by some donors and governments. In the past, the idea of advancing soft loans to people living with HIV/Aids was hampered by high death rates and poor health.
But now with ARVs in place, people living HIV are living longer and healthier lives. For instance, if they get assistance including training in basic business principles, they could contribute significantly to the economic wellbeing of their families, the communities and the nation at large.
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