Question

Explain the link between poverty and HIV/AIDS.

Answer 1

Poverty and disease are stuck in an ongoing, vicious relationship. One goes a long way towards intensifying the other with studies demonstrating that infection rates of certain diseases are highest in regions where poverty is rife.

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According to the World Bank, an estimated 1.2 billion live in extreme poverty (defined as those who live on less than 1,25 USD per day) worldwide. Running parallel to statistics about global poverty are statistics about infectious diseases. Terms such as “neglected tropical diseases” and “infectious diseases of poverty” are employed to define a number of infectious diseases more commonly found in areas where poverty is high. This list includes widely recognised diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis as well as lesser-known ailments such as dengue, chagas disease and foodborne trematode infections.

The relationship between poverty and diseases is emphatically intertwined however we paint with too broad a brush when we generalise that infection rates go down as poverty declines. This trend is not a given and spikes in infection rates do occur when disastrous events take place such as natural disasters or the outbreak of conflict.