Why Does Africa Have the Highest Growing HIV/AIDs Population?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 33.3 million people living in the world with HIV as of 2010. Of these, over 22 million live in Africa. Some progress is being made in slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS; however, the progress is not enough to overstep the rapid spread of the disease.

The WHO reports that people are becoming newly infected with HIV worldwide at twice the rate of people who are starting antiretroviral treatment. Every day 7000 people in the world are newly infected, including 1000 children. The majority of these newly-infected people are in Africa.

The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, when viewed through a prism of poverty, translates into a reality where poor people in Africa become more vulnerable due to a number of factors including:

Lack of HIV Education
Financial Priorities
African Sex Trade
Cultural Practices of Affluent Polygamy
Dry Sex
Female Genital Mutilation

Lack of HIV Education

A lack of education about HIV and its prevention causes higher growth rates, as people are without the information necessary to prevent its spread. Many impoverished Africans who have been diagnosed with the disease are without counseling and proper treatment creating a revolving whirlwind of scarcity, suffering, risk taking and lack of knowledge and resources about HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and spread.

Financial Priorities

In segments of the population where HIV education is available, those living with limited financial resources are hard pressed to spend money for condoms in the face of other more immediate needs.

African Sex Trade

Adding to the problem, dire poverty has forced many women in African communities to put themselves at great risk of contracting HIV/AIDS by engaging in the sex trade for financial gain, or to knowingly enter into unfaithful marriages or other unsafe relationships with men whose sexual behavior has either already made them HIV positive or put them at greater risk to contract the disease.

Cultural Practices of Affluent Polygamy

Cultural practices and beliefs relating to sex and sexuality in some African communities play a key role in making (especially) women vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Among them is one of the most common practices – polygamy – which itself cannot be blamed for a rise in HIV/AIDS in Africa.

It is the relatively recent emergence of “affluent” polygamy that has facilitated the spread of HIV among polygamous family circles. Infidelity has become the hallmark of “affluent” polygamy, which is outside the norms of the original African tradition of polygamy, and puts the whole family unit in a high-risk category for catching HIV/AIDS.

“Affluent” polygamy behavior lends itself to families or the male of the family migrating to cities (where HIV/AIDS is more prevalent) in search of employment. While there, the male may engage in sexual activity with HIV infected women, and subsequently pass the infection onto their wives upon their return home.

The wives in turn, may also be unfaithful, exposing the husband and all other wives to possible infection, as well as female sexual partners with whom the male is also involved with away from home.

Children, then, born to these relationships are also devastated by HIV/AIDS, as they are either affected themselves via maternal/fetal transmission or communal breastfeeding and then are eventually left as destitute orphans of HIV/AIDS-stricken parents.

Dry Sex

A rarely exposed practice, but yet one that is reported in literature as being widely practiced in some African countries, is called dry sex, also known as vaginal drying. This practice entails the artificial drying of the vagina for the sexual gratification of males.

While the practice has been described by women as highly painful, it continues to be utilized by women who exist in female subordinate environments where gender inequality fuels cultural practices and rituals which are limitlessly detrimental to the physical and physiological health of women and their families.

While the evidence is not yet conclusive, it is suspected that dry sex places women at a very high risk of HIV/AIDS as the friction caused in the genital area disturbs the membrane lining and uterine wall, causing optimum exposure to HIV.

Dry sex practices are also linked to lack of condom usage as well as an increase in the likelihood that condoms may be torn if they are in fact used. Consequently, the after-effects of dry sex as related to HIV/AIDS exposure are inherently dangerous, yet the tradition continues in some regions despite health risks.

Female Genital Mutilation

Female genital mutilation (FGM), or genital cutting, can also be attributed to the rise of women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in Africa. It is reported that of the 43 African countries, 26 practice FGM in some form or another. When FGM is performed as a traditional ritual, it is in many cases performed in secret – in unclean environments using non-sterile instruments.

These young victims are subjected to pain and trauma and regularly experience severe physical problems such as blood loss, infection and even death. Pre-disposed to a life of poor physical gynecologic health and complications, these women carry a greater risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, either at the time of mutilation or at some time in their future sexual experiences – all in the name of culture and tradition.

Spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa

While the overall prevalence of HIV in Africa has shown some decline since the beginning of the 21st century, the number of people suffering with HIV/AIDS infection is at an extremely high level and continues to rise due to general population growth of the continent.

The proportion of those living with HIV today varies widely among countries, with South Africa having the highest HIV rates, followed by several east and central African countries. West Africa has been less affected by HIV/AIDS, but lowest number of cases is found in North Africa, with the Sudan showing the highest HIV concentration of that region.