Hiv / Aids Has Stunted The Progression Of African Economy...

According to Feldman and Miller, HIV is a virus that breaks down the immune system of the host it possesses (Feldman xxvi). AIDS is sometimes called full blown HIV, as it is believed to be a direct effect of HIV (Feldman xxviii). AIDS is more serious and causes more casualties, and when it develops to its fuller extent, there’s nearly nowhere to go but down. HIV can be spread by, needle sharing, breast-feeding, blood transfusions, vomit to an open wound, and organ transplants. In second and third world countries with limited resources, such as South Africa, these activities are not monitored or sanitized and the risk of attainting HIV/AIDS is high. By affecting over twelve percent of South Africa’s population since its first diagnosis in†¦show more content†¦dollar per day (Hunter 55). Without the catastrophic affect HIV/AIDS brought along, the continent obviously struggled enough. Despite the continent’s overall struggles, South Africa had some of the h ighest concentrations of wealth in the world (Hunter 55); however, this was all about to change. Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, agricultural rates in countries had declined and economic growth rates were either flat lining or declining as well (Hunter 55). During this time, the first HIV/AIDS case had been declared in South Africa. In 1989, South Africa for the first time ever made more income exporting other goods than gold, their greatest industrial product (Halliburton 38). This also happened to be during the peak of the HIV/AIDS crisis. South Africa s work industries heavily rely on manual labor. According to Foster and Williamson’s A Review of Current Literature of the Impact of HIV/AIDS on Children in Sub-Saharan Africa., in severely affected areas, HIV/AIDS directly affects personal families and the entire community. When an adult contracts HIV-related symptoms, they stop agricultural work (Foster S278). So, in addition to weakened industry due to rapid population growth on arable land and the economic crisis that began in the 1970s (Iliffe 120), these previously able-bodied adults now infected with HIV/AIDS are either sluggishly working (Hall 23) or being removed from the fields altogether. The multiplication of this affect across all