EGERTON UNIVERSITY.

FACULTY OF ENGINERING AND

TECHNOLOGY.
DEPARTMENT: CEEN.
CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL
ENGINEERING.
NAME: EDWIN MURIMI MWANGI.
REG. NO: BP12/00234/22.

BIOLOGY OF HIV/AIDS AND

SOCIETY.
UNIT CODE: ZOOL 143.
SUBMITTED TO: DR WALTER
ESSSENDI.
1. Discuss socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS on public service sector.

Staff, Facilities and Services

Effective strategies to address AIDS need robust, flexible healthcare systems. However, the
epidemic hit just when many countries were reducing public-service spending to repay debt
and conform to international finance institutions’ requirements. On top of this, the epidemic
itself has contributed to rapid health sector deterioration by increasing burdens on already-
strapped systems and steadily depriving countries of essential health-care workers. Staff
losses and absenteeism caused by sickness and death mean health-care sector suffer from
understaffing. At the same time, large numbers of uninfected workers are suffering from
burnout and emotional exhaustion. But AIDS also adversely affects uninfected patients’
quality of care, as overburdened health-care sectors adopt a triage approach that de-
emphasizes patient care for conditions less severe than AIDS.

Inadequate Supply of Teachers

Teachers and lecturers belong to the most HIV-affected age group. Without forward long-
term planning, high prevalence countries will have great difficulty meeting their school
staffing targets. But AIDS is not the sole cause of teacher losses. Low pay and morale are
contributing to overall teacher attrition.

Poor School Attendance

Many AIDS-affected families may withdraw children from school to compensate for labour
losses, increased care activities and competing expenses. In these ways, AIDS reinforces
gender inequities, deepens household poverty and threatens future generations. School fees
also pose significant problems for AIDS-affected households; families simply cannot afford
them and children are withdrawn from school.

Low Student Enrolment

The epidemic may negatively affect student enrolment in several ways. Some of this is
caused by reduced fertility and young adults dying from AIDS, meaning there are fewer
school-age children, thus decreasing social demand for education in some hard-hit areas,
children orphaned or otherwise made vulnerable by AIDS may not attend school because
they have to look after the household, care for younger siblings, or simply because they
cannot afford the fees. To date, in high prevalence countries, too few governments have
created policies or funding to enable children from AIDS-affected households and
communities to go to school.

Deteriorating Education Quality

Education quality may also suffer as more teachers succumb to the disease. This is because
more inexperienced and under-qualified teachers and increased class sizes reduce quality
student-teacher contact. AIDS-related deaths also accelerate the impact of a pre-existing
professional ‘brain drain’ since skilled teachers are not easily replaced. However, there are
subtler reasons why education may suffer, including the lack of motivation or ability to teach
and learn because of ‘AIDS in the family’ or among colleagues.
 Loss of work force
A healthy agricultural sector is central to the well-being and self-sufficiency of low- and
middle-income countries. Agriculture affects food security, the fate of national economies
and the sustainability of environmental assets. It accounts for 24% of Africa’s gross
domestic product, 40% of its foreign exchange earnings and 70% of its employment.
Unfortunately, the epidemic attacks the agricultural base- it infects and kills many
agricultural workers prematurely. This causes a loss of labor, reduced farming income and
lowered household-level food security. This loss of workers is critical. Households try to
adapt by farming smaller plots of land, cutting back on weeding, repairing fences and
tending irrigation channels, or livestock husbandry. Often land must be left fallow, while
livestock that can’t be tended become more vulnerable to disease, predators and thieves. In
rural communities, gender inequality also increases the epidemic’s agricultural impact. In
many societies, women lack legal or even customary title to land, livestock and other key
assets, and widows may lose what they helped develop.

2. Enumerate actions that may be taken to save tourism sector from collapsing due to
impact of HIV/AIDS.

a. Endorsing policies of non-discrimination against employees living with HIV

hence make economic sense.

b. Companies that pass prevention policy audits are given discounted group-life
insurance premiums.

c. Increasingly, companies advocate voluntary, confidential counseling and testing,

and provide antiretroviral treatment to workers while assuring them that testing
HIV-positive will not cause them to lose their employment.

d. The ILO Code of Practice on HIV/AIDS provides practical programming

guidance on prevention and behavior change; protecting workers’ rights and
benefits; and treatment, care and support needs.

e. Providing health care services in workplace settings.