Households coping with members who are sick from HIV or AIDS reduce spending on supplies even further. Taking care of a person sick with AIDS is an emotional strain for household members and on household resources. Loss of income, additional care-relates expenses and mounting medical fees push affected households deeper into poverty.
Providing home based care can inflict demands on the physical, mental and general health of carers-usually family and friends of the sick person. The burden of coping results with women. Many families have to care for their sick children and are often left to look after orphaned grandchildren.
Due to the amount of time spent caring for dependants, people may become isolated from their peers. Family deaths lead to despair and marriage breakdowns. Sex partners within the family may be at risk from their partner.
Children may also suffer from economic constraints as the household provider becomes sick, can’t work and loses their job. The responsibility of earning money and providing food is left to the children. They often go hungry, become malnourished and become unable to concentrate.
* The Impact of HIV/AIDS on the community
The number of AIDS orphans has risen and some community members have come together to visit numerous orphans in their homes, where they live either with foster parents, grandparents, other relatives, or in child-headed households.
Productivity is likely to decline as a result of HIV-related illness. HIV/AIDS causes growth challenges, debt and declining trade in the South African community.
The chance that children will contract the disease in adulthood increases, therefore it makes investment in their education less attractive, even when both parents themselves remain uninfected.
Community members often make judgements about the need to use condoms based on a moralistic argument- e.g. “this person is ‘good’ so there is no need to use a condom,” or “this person is a prostitute, therefore ‘bad’, so we’d better use a condom.”
In many communities, there are members who force head masters of local schools to expel children from families affected by AIDS from the school. AIDS orphans are often ignored by community members as they often require extra care and more expensive facilities.
Increased poverty and inequality may encourage conflict and an increased dependence on criminal activities in the community. HIV/AIDS can impact heavily on the police and military, which are at high risk of infection and this, may limit their ability to preserve stability.
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