HIV/AIDS

Citation:

Lanegran, Kim, and Goran Hyden. 1993. “Mapping the Politics of AIDS: Illustrations from East Africa.” Population and Environment 14 (3): 245-63.

Authors: Kim Lanegran, Goran Hyden

Topics: Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Health, HIV/AIDS Regions: Africa, East Africa

Year: 1993

Citation:

Flechner, David. 2005. “A Human Rights Approach to Protecting People Living with HIV/AIDS in Angola.” International Social Science Journal 57 (186): 627-37.

Author: David Flechner

Abstract:

The official end of Angola's decades-long civil war in 2002 presented the government with an opportunity to channel its attention and resources into confronting the nation's profound social challenges. Principal among these is the need to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS while also supporting those already living with the virus. While the civil conflict hampered national and cross-border mobility, and consequently slowed the rate of HIV/AIDS transmission, the post-war situation could now lead to a rapid increase in infections, rising to the devastating proportions already decimating the populations in its neighbouring countries. A key strategy for mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS that has already yielded some positive results is the use of human rights mechanisms to protect those living with the virus. This article first analyses the context in which the epidemic has begun to spread at an increased rate since the end of Angola's civil war. It then explores how the existing international, regional, and domestic human rights instruments to which Angola has adhered guarantee to protect people living with HIV/AIDS and, if enforced more consistently and comprehensively, will prove to be powerful tools in confronting the epidemic.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Health, HIV/AIDS, Post-Conflict, Rights, Human Rights Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Angola

Year: 2005

Citation:

Karkee, Rajendra, and DB Shrestha. 2006. “HIV and Conflict in Nepal: Relation and Strategy for Response.” Kathmandu University Medical Journal 4 (3): 363–67.

Authors: Rajendra Karkee, DB Shrestha

Abstract:

Conflict and displacement make affected population more vulnerable to HIV infection. Refugees and internally displaced persons, in particular women and children, are at increased risk of exposure to HIV. In Nepal, there is considerable increase in the number of HIV infection since 1996 when conflict started. Along with poverty, stigma and lack of awareness, conflict related displacement, economic migration, and closure of HIV programmes have exacerbated the HIV situation in Nepal. Government has established “National AIDS Council” and launched HIV/AIDS Strategy. The strategy has not included the specific needs of displaced persons. While launching an HIV prevention programme in the conflict situation, the guidelines developed by Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASS) are important tools. This led to suggestion of an approach with implementations steps in the case of Nepal in this report.

Keywords: HIV, conflict, Nepal, Response

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Migration, IDPs, Refugees, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Women, Girls, Boys, Governance, Health, HIV/AIDS Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Nepal

Year: 2006

Citation:

Ellman, Tom, Heather Culbert, and Victorio Torres-Feced. 2007. “Treatment of AIDS in Conflict-Affected Settings: A Failure of Imagination.” The Lancet 365 (9456): 278–80.

Authors: Tom Ellman , Heather Culbert , Victorio Torres-Feced

Topics: Armed Conflict, Health, HIV/AIDS Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Year: 2007

Citation:

Beyrer, Chris. 1998. War in the Blood: Sex, Politics and AIDS in Southeast Asia. London: Zed Books.

Author: Chris Beyrer

Abstract:

This engaging and vivid book investigates the course of the HIV epidemic in seven countries of South East Asia: Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam and China’s Yunnan Province. Emphasising the impact of the cultural and political landscapes of these countries on the progress of the disease, the book is the product of both working and travelling in the area. Not merely a commentary on obfuscating government statistics, the author draws upon his encounters with people dealing with the effects of the epidemic and opponents of the regimes of the countries he describes. The epidemic is seen as being vitally linked to the general condition of human rights in the societies.

In the first part of the book the author travels to each country in turn chronicling the different approaches adopted to the epidemic. The second part covers issues involving specific groups at risk - among other topics, women and contraception, prostitution and the traffic in women, HIV and the US military, the Heroin trade, gay sex workers, prisoners, and the work of local activists. The third part of the book looks at policy and the general effect of culture on public health care, stressing the need for local empowerment of populations, and in particular women, to effect social changes that would go hand in hand with improvements in the handling of the HIV epidemic. Both passionate and well-informed, this book is a labour of love that discusses the HIV epidemic while giving an intimate, and ultimately celebratory account of South East Asia and asserting the real possiblity for affirmative action. (Amazon)

Topics: Governance, Health, HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Health, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Rights, Human Rights, Sexuality, Trafficking, Drug Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam

Year: 1998

Citation:

Omarjee, Nadira. 2008. “Conflicts, Gender-Based Violence and the Ramifications for HIV and AIDS.” South African Review of Sociology 39 (1): 51-64.

Author: Nadira Omarjee

Abstract:

This article attempts to contextualise gender-based violence in relation to conflicts with special mention to conflicts on the African continent. Gender-based violence is framed within the oedipal complex of the dominance and submission model whereby dominance is asserted through violence. This model is also used to frame the context of conflicts as a masculine construction. Furthermore, the article highlights the causes and consequences of gender-based violence with regard to responses for psychosocial and medical treatment in the restoration and rehabilitation of post-conflict societies. Gender-based violence in the context of conflicts has serious ramifications for HIV and AIDS. Incubation periods for the HI virus are decreased when it is coupled together with psychosocial trauma and malnutrition. Therefore, gender-based violence and HIV and AIDS have serious implications in the context of conflicts due to adequate responses in the absence of rule of law and infrastructure to mete out treatment.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Gender-Based Violence, Health, HIV/AIDS Regions: Africa

Year: 2008

Citation:

De Waal, Alex. 2010. “Reframing Governance, Security and Conflict in the Light of HIV/AIDS: A Synthesis of Findings from the AIDS, Security and Conflict Initiative.” Social Science & Medicine 70 (1): 114-20. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.09.031.

Author: Alex De Waal

Abstract:

This paper draws upon the findings of the AIDS, Security and Conflict Initiative (ASCI) to reach conclusions about the relationship between HIV/AIDS, security, conflict and governance, in the areas of HIV/AIDS and state fragility, the reciprocal interactions between armed conflicts (including post-conflict transitions) and HIV/AIDS, and the impact of HIV/AIDS on uniformed services and their operational effectiveness. Gender issues cut across all elements of the research agenda. ASCI commissioned 29 research projects across regions, disciplines and communities of practice.

Over the last decade, approaches to HIV/AIDS as a security threat have altered dramatically, from the early anticipation that the epidemic posed a threat to the basic functioning of states and security institutions, to a more sanguine assessment that the impacts will be less severe than feared. ASCI finds that governance outcomes have been shaped as much by the perception of HIV/AIDS as a security threat, as the actual impacts of the epidemic.

ASCI research found that the current indices of fragility at country level did not demonstrate any significant association with HIV, calling into question the models used for asserting such linkages. However at local government level, appreciable impacts can be seen. Evidence from ASCI and elsewhere indicates that conventional indicators of conflict, including the definition of when it ends, fail to capture the social traumas associated with violent disruption and their implications for HIV. Policy frameworks adopted for political and security reasons translate poorly into social and public health policies. Fears of much-elevated HIV rates among soldiers with disastrous impacts on armies as institutions, have been overstated. In mature epidemics, rates of infection among the military resemble those of the peer groups within the general population. Military HIV/AIDS control policies follow a different and parallel paradigm to national (civilian) policies, in which armies prioritize command responsibility and operational effectiveness over individual rights. Law enforcement practices regarding criminalized and stigmatized activities, such as injecting drug use and commercial sex work, are an important factor in shaping the trajectory of HIV epidemics.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, security, conflict, governance

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Gender, Governance, Post-Conflict Governance, Health, HIV/AIDS, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Post-Conflict, Security

Year: 2010

Citation:

Meel, B. L. 2003. “A Study on the Prevalence of HIV-seropositivity among Rape Survivals in Transkei, South Africa.” Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine 10 (2): 65–70.

Author: B. L. Meel

Abstract:

Background: South Africa has the highest incidence of rape, including child rape, in the world. The country has about 5-million individuals infected with HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is becoming a life-threatening consequence of rape. It is therefore important to provide anti-retroviral drugs and some provinces have already begun to do so.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of HIV-seropositivity in the victims of rape in Transkei.

Methods: All the victims of rape who attended Sinawe Rape Crisis Center in Umtata General Hospital during daytime from Monday to Friday between November 2000 and May 2002 were included in the study. All were tested for VDRL and HIV.

Results: A total of 243 victims were examined. 22 (9%) were seropositive for HIV. Two blood results were not available. One hundred and sixty six (68.3%) were less than 20 years old, 57 (23.4%) were less than 10 years, and 12 (4.9%) were less than 5 years of age. The highest HIV-positivity (2.8%) was found among the adolescents (15–19 years). No children of less than 5 years were infected with HIV. Only 5 (2.2%) returned for the second HIV test, and one (0.4%) seroconverted after 3 months.

Conclusion: There were 219 (90%) rape victims who were HIV negative at the time of the incident. Serious consideration must be given to cover rape victims with anti-retroviral agents to prevent them contracting HIV infection.

Keywords: Rape survivors, HIV seropositivity, Postexposure prophylaxis, Anti-retroviral drugs

Topics: Gender, Health, HIV/AIDS, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: South Africa

Year: 2003

Citation:

Mills, Edward J., and Jean B. Nachega. 2006. “HIV Infection as a Weapon of War.” The Lancet Infectious Diseases 6 (12): 752–53.

Authors: Edward J. Mills, Jean B. Nachega

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Health, HIV/AIDS, International Law, Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Violence, Rape Regions: Africa

Year: 2006

Citation:

Westerhaus, Michael J., Amy C. Finnegan, Yoti Zabulon, and Joia S. Mukherjee. 2007. “Framing HIV Prevention Discourse to Encompass the Complexities of War in Northern Uganda.” American Journal of Public Health 97 (7): 1184–86.

Authors: Michael J. Westerhaus, Amy C. Finnegan, Yoti Zabulon, Joia S. Mukherjee

Abstract:

In northern Uganda, physical and structural violence (political repression, economic inequality, and gender-based discrimination) increase vulnerability to HIV infection. In settings of war, traditional HIV prevention that solely promotes risk avoidance and risk reduction and assumes the existence of personal choice inadequately addresses the realities of HIV transmission.

The design of HIV prevention strategies in northern Uganda must recognize how HIV transmission occurs and the factors that put people at risk for infection. A human rights approach provides a viable model for achieving this aim.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Health, HIV/AIDS Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Uganda

Year: 2007