Marseille 2007
| Abstract #135 - The Socio-Economic Impact on PLW HIV/AIDS and their families in AP State. | ||||
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Session: 11.3: Cost (Parallel) on Monday @ 11.00-12.30 in HC Chaired by Eileen Stillwaggon, Didier Fassin Authors: Presenting Author: Dr Ramesh Babu Rayapu - BOSS & CIPCA (Charitable non-Governmental Voluntary Community Based Organisation), India |
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| Additional Authors: Dr Ayodhya Ramaiah Kaja, Dr Sarath Babu R, Dr Anand Babu R, Mrs Ramola Sangamalla, Dr Sudha Rani B, | ||||
| Aim: Study Objective: While HIV/AIDS is clearly a health problem, the world has come to realize it also as a development problem that threatens human welfare, socio-economic progress, productivity, social cohesion, and even national solidarity. HIV/AIDS percolates into every corner of society, affecting parents, children and youth, teachers and health workers, rich and poor. BOSS & CIPCA a charitable non-Governmental Voluntary Community Based Organisation having 400 doctors and 8050 blood donors as its members and working on HIV/AIDS since 1987 has conducted a study on the Socio-Economic Impact on PLW HIV/AIDS and their families in AP State. | ||||
| Method / Issue: Method: A questionnaire was administered to the HIV/AIDS infected persons attending our Community Care Centre to evaluate the Socio-economic impact on them and their families. A total of 2300 PLW HIV/AIDS and their families participated in the study from 23 districts of AP State. This study included also field visits, to meet their families, community and the surrounding Govt. support systems and health facilities available their areas etc. The study was carried out over a period of five years 2001 to 2005. | ||||
| Results / Comments: Results: Out of 2300 PLW HIV/AIDS families 1563 families were found to be below the poverty line. We found that AIDS selectively destroys human capital, that is, peoples' accumulated life experiences, their human and job skills, and their knowledge and insights built up over a period of years. It is primarily a disease effecting young adults, as these infected adults become progressively sick and weak, they steadily lose their ability to work. Eventually, the disease kills them in their prime, thereby destroying the human capital built up in them over the years through child-rearing, formal education, and learning on the job. AIDS weakens or even wrecks the mechanisms that generate human capital formation. In the family, the quality of child-rearing depends heavily on the parents' human capital. If one or, worse, both parents die while their children are still young, the transmission of knowledge and potential productive capacity across the two generations will be weakened. At the same time, the loss of income due to disability and early death reduces the lifetime resources available to the family, which may well result in the children spending much less time (if any at all) at school. The chance that the children themselves will contact the disease in adulthood which makes investment in their education less attractive, even if both parents themselves remain uninfected. We have also found many families experiencing social rejection and discrimination by the surrounding families and the community. | ||||
| Discussion: Discussion: The impact of disease on vulnerable groups, including orphans, farm workers, women, and youth requires more attention. Efforts by the Govt., NGOs and other organizations to battle the epidemic on war footing through communications and the arts, ICT, education and cultural awareness programs should be explored. Further there is immediate need to understand in depth the socio economic and psychological impact on HIV/AIDS patients and their families. | ||||
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