A Problem of HIV/AIDS and Poverty

 Since the expansion of the antiretroviral treatment, the expenditure to cover HIV/AIDS is increasing. Tom Lodge, quotes from Republic of South Africa, 2013 Budget Review, that Within overall health expenditure the proportion directed at providing care for people affected by HIV/AIDS has been rising, especially after the expansion of ARV prescriptions in 2005 (Lodge 2).

This means that with HIV/AIDS coming to rise, government budgets to support treatment is becoming more and more expensive. For that suffering poverty or are on social welfare, public spending will increase to provide treatment for those individuals as well. Because South Africa's budget is barely reaching its limit for expansion, A portion of the funding the government has used to cope with HIV/AIDS comes from foreign aid. At present foreign donors support about 25% of the costs of the range of HIV/AIDS responses, including NGO activities. (Lodge ?). Rifat Atun, a Public Health professor at Harvard University, conducted a modeling study to show how much financing South Africa really needs.

By comparing various treatment programs, and services, Atun concluded that there is a need for a lot of money to cover these expansion costs. His study found that scaling up HIV/AIDS prevention and expanding antiretroviral treatment to all HIV-positive individuals would cost $261 billion. Science daily rephrases his study by saying that 'front-loading' investments now will be necessary to ensure that higher levels of coverage are achieved. (SD). These numbers mean that long term funds need to be dealt with now as the rise of the disease is still going on. Whether that be from foreign aid or local funding, South Africa is going to have to reevaluate its expenditures so treatment can be accessed by all. Conclusion       

After researching numerous articles about the relationship between HIV/AIDS and poverty it can be concluded that people who are impoverished in South Africa, are more susceptible to contract the disease than people of wealth. With the public and private health sector gap, treatment to people who cannot afford private health care are unable to receive care. Urban areas also are home to many people who fall into the poverty line. Urban areas host a large sexual networking site where people who are uneducated transmit the disease without knowing if their partner was positive for the disease. However, the government of South Africa needs to fix this problem, but it is going to be very expensive. To reduce the expansion of the epidemic in impoverished areas, the government is going to need to obtain foreign funds. By being aware of the way impoverished people are treated in the public health care system, one can conclude that something should be done but it is not going to be very affordable to do so.

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