HIV and AIDS and Zambia

Given I’ve been sent to Zambia to work for a HIV/ AIDS focused organisation and we are only days away from World AIDS Day on the 1st of December, I thought it was timely that I fill people in on the illness and it’s impact on society.

I’m assuming that most people at home were probably much like me; they know a bit about what HIV & AIDS is, some of the ways you can become infected, it’s epidemic status particularly in Southern Africa and may even remember the “Grim Reaper” scare campaign that was used in Australia in the late 80s and early 90s. ( Australian TV Commercial for AIDS )

What is HIV?

HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It infects only humans and attacks the body’s immune system which protects it against illness. Most people who become infected with HIV do not notice they have been infected and can remain healthy for many years with no sign of the infection.

A person with the virus but no symptoms is “HIV positive” or has “asymptomatic HIV disease”. If symptoms develop the person is said to have “symptomatic HIV disease” or “advanced HIV disease”. At this stage they are likely to develop opportunistic infections.

What is AIDS?

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and is the clinical definition given to HIV infected people who have a CD4 cell count of below 200 or one of a number of specific infection including tuberculosis, rare cancers and eye, skin and nervous system conditions

Livingstone Cemetery

The HIV & AIDS impact on Zambia is devesting. The prevalence rate is estimated at 16% for ages 15- 49, Zambia’s most productive members of society. In Livingstone where I live it is estimated at around the 29% mark, so nearly one in three people. I still find that difficult to comprehend when I look around.

Zambia’s life expectancy is one of the lowest in the world, in 2007 estimated to be only 44.5, largely a result of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic

Livingstone Cemetery: Running short of space

Economically HIV has the obvious strain on the country’s health system (or lack of) but it also affects the country’s work force through absenteeism and deaths both for those infected or affected by the illness, and taking away some of Zambia’s brightest and most educated. With 65% percent of the Zambian population living in poverty (i.e. less than $1.25USD a day), HIV and AIDS are making it much more difficult for the country to fight high levels of poverty and for households to effectively provide for themselves.



The truck queue for Zambian immigration across the Botswana border. Trucks may take up to 4-5 days to move through the border due to inefficient immigration processes and the pontoon used to cross the river separating Zambia and Botswana. A bridge is yet to be built despite the large prevalence rate of HIV amongst truck drivers and this border contributing to the epidemic.  



Socially HIV & AIDS is changing family structures; where previously the notion of the “extended family” stood strong in Zambia, HIV & AIDS is gradually reducing families to the “nuclear” family. No longer can families afford to take on nieces and nephews as parents die, thus creating orphans, or meaning that those children who are taken in by family are required to give up school in order to work. And so the poverty cycle turns.

The impact is much greater than I have outlined above and there are many, many issues and impacts to Zambia and all countries highly impacted by HIV & AIDS. To find out more about this epidemic please refer to some of the below websites and of course I will say more in future blog posts.

·             Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)

·             World Health Organization (WHO)

·             International HIV/AIDS Alliance

·             The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria