Environmental Ethics PHIL 323 / INDS 323 The University of Arizona

HIV/AIDS There are many sites devoted to HIV-AIDS. The Centers for Disease Control pages on AIDS are a good starting point for information about the disease itself. This page strives to provide sufficient information to understand HIV's effect on environmental issues in Africa. It is intended to emphasize the seriousness of the problem in some parts of Africa. MAIN INFORMATION SOURCE: The UNAIDS Home Page at http://www.unaids.org and the "Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, June 1998" by UNAIDS/WHO Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. The Report is linked to from the UNAIDS Home Page Cases of HIV/AIDS in the world   New Cases in (1998) Total Cases (end of 1998) Cases as proportion of total world cases North America 44,000 890,000 2.6 % Caribbean 45,000 330,000 1.0 % Latin America 160,000 1.4 million 4.2 % Western Europe 30,000 500,000 1.5 % North Africa & Middle East 19,000 210,000 0.6 % Sub-Saharan Africa 4.0 million 22.5 million 67.4 % Eastern Europe & Central Asia 80,000 270,000 0.8 % East Asia & Pacific 200,000 560,000 1.7 % South & SE Asia 1.2 million 6.7 million 20.1 % Australia & New Zealand 600 12,000 0.04 % THE WORLD 5.8 million 33.4 million 33.4 million Africa contains approximately 13% of the world's population but has 67% of the world's HIV/AIDS cases. HIV/AIDS in Africa In some parts of the world, including parts of Africa, there is a stigma attached to having HIV. The stigma is so serious that people admitting they are HIV positive are sometimes thrown out of the community. The report includes the following: "In places where shame and stigma are the rule, many people simply do not want to know if they are HIV-infected, even when counselling and testing are offered. And the small minority of people who know their HIV status rarely share it with others, even in confidential support groups. In Zimbabwe's city of Mutare, for example, surveillance data show that close to 40% of pregnant women are HIV-infected, and infection levels in men are likely to be similarly high. There are probably 30,000 adults living with HIV in Mutare. Yet there is just one HIV support group in the city, and it has just 70 members. Many more people know or fear they are HIV infected: some will find support in ther partners or families but many still struggle alone with the implications of their infections." p.14 ibid. A different section of the report says that for Zimbabwe "one in four adults in 1997 were thought to be infected". And, "(I)n one town near the South African border with a large population of migrant workers, 7 out of 10 women attending antenatal clinics tested HIV-positive in 1995." p.11 ibid What does this mean for Human Life Expectancy It means a dramatic increase in infant and child mortality that basically eradicates the increases in life expectancy gained in the last few years. The increase in infant and child mortality is largely due to transmission to the infant of HIV from the mother either during birth or during breast feeding. In the south African countries hardest hit by HIV-AIDS, roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of babies born to and breastfed by HIV-positive women become infected with HIV. In developed countries, treatments exist that greatly reduce the risk of transmission from mother to baby, but the African mothers don't have access to those treatments. The report states that in Botswana if AIDS had not emerged as it did, that life expectancy (at birth) would have reached 70 years by early into 2000's. Instead it is estimated to be about 40. "Between 1996 and 1997 Botswana dropped 26 places down the Human Development Index, a ranking of countries that takes into account wealth, literacy and life expectancy." p.7 of the December 1998 update to the report. What does this mean for wildlife preservation? It means that people in their prime productive years for a community, say aged 25-45, instead of contributing greatly to the community, are wasting away with AIDS. This means fewer resources are being generated for conservation efforts and other resources are being diverted to caring for these people. It means a grandmother whose own grown children have died from AIDS is attempting to care for six, eight, or ten grandchildren. People in those circumstances can't be concerned much about preserving elephants that rampage gardens! This contrasts sharply to North America where older people tend to be in sound and stable economic situations and choose to become major contributors of time, money, creative ideas, and energy to conservation and preservation movements.

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