THE EFFECT OF HIV/AIDS ON HUMAN RESOURCES

In economics, population is an important economic indicator, first as labour – human efforts, both physical and mental and secondly, the people who take part in production are themselves consumers and so constitute a market.

From reports on Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe has an unemployment rate of 94% declared by UN’s humanitarian arm. Zimbabwe is suffering from a severe lack of human resources, in many cases this problem is a direct result of the HIV epidemic, as workers are either caring for family members with AIDS or suffering from it.

In the healthcare sector, the deficiency of workers has hindered efforts to treat and care for people living with HIV. Zimbabwean Human Rights Doctors say there is now one doctor for every 12,000 people as such Health professionals are working under intense pressure and stress with too much to do yet receive poor pay, and critical lack of supplies, while large numbers of health personnel migrate to other countries once they are trained, and many of those remaining are affected by HIV.

As the economy deteriorates and farming communities struggle to recover from President Mugabe’s land reforms, food shortages have escalated. Queues for food can be seen outside a supermarket in Zimbabwe. Sickness and death from AIDS has caused a reduction in agricultural output especially since women who form the bulk of agricultural labour are vulnerable to HIV infection. Women equally are expected to care for relatives infected with AIDS, forcing many to abandon their agricultural work.

The degenerated workforce in Zimbabwe has resulted to food shortages, increasing the number of deaths from AIDS. Malnutrition has caused people living with HIV to develop AIDS faster, and is likely to have decreased the effectiveness of ARVs for those who fortunately can receive this treatment.

Even though, most people feel the Zimbabwean Government’s response to the AIDS crisis has been relatively good in comparison with their performance in other areas, prevention and treatment initiatives have been scaled up and the national HIV prevalence seems to have declined. Yet in the context of such a fragmented political and economic background, the fight against AIDS has been unable to make substantial progress.

The collapse of the economy- which is perhaps the most prominent of Zimbabwe’s interrelated problems – has been a direct result of the Government’s disastrous land reforms policy, as farming output has declined and the unethical nature of the campaign has led to international sanctions and the withdrawal of aid.

Eventually, there is only so much that can be done with such low levels of funding, human resources and international support. Zimbabwe following report issued by the United Nations has the lowest life expectancies in the world at just 37 years for men and 34 years for women – due chiefly to the AIDS epidemic. Women’s life expectancy over the last two years dropped by two years according to WHO.
Mugabe now 85 years old, many hold a change of government is long overdue and necessary if an effective response to the epidemic is to be formed.