HIV/AIDS tightens its grip

HIV/AIDS, more than ongoing drought conditions, is threatening to turn the continuing food crisis in Swaziland into a calamity. While erratic rainfall, or none at all, was largely to blame for food shortages in recent years, the HIV/AIDS pandemic is quickly emerging as the most significant cause of the current crisis. In its latest official vulnerability assessment, released on Friday, the government highlighted how the high level of AIDS-related deaths had seriously undermined the ability of households to produce food, particularly in rural areas. Close to 220,000 Swazis out of a population of approximately 900,000 are in need of food aid as the country faces its third consecutive year of drought. Preliminary maize forecasts at mid-February indicated a harvest of between 10 and 15 percent of normal production in the Lowveld region. The region has been the hardest hit by recent droughts. The gap between cereal consumption requirements and the domestic production at national level was estimated to be between 110,000 mt and 140,000 mt. "The levels of vulnerability have considerably worsened, given three years of depressed food production. Furthermore, the current impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is exacting a very heavy burden on the population and the economy," the assessment commented. Close to 40 percent of Swazis are HIV positive, and authorities are now concerned over their ability to cope with the fallout as the epidemic takes its toll on the country's public sector. Particularly high infection rates - up to 47.3 percent - are found among women aged 15 to 24, and up to 18.3 percent among men in the same age group. Life expectancy in the mid-1990s was 51 years but, as a direct results of AIDS, has dropped to 39.4 years. In households which had experienced an AIDS-related death, there was a significant loss of income and an increase in the sale of livestock. Moreover, families were having to spend a lot more on health care. "What is particularly striking is the decrease in agricultural production. Families often report that because of the lack of able bodies they are unable to till their fields. Of course there are huge tracts of land which have not been cultivated because there is not enough money to buy seeds, but more often we find that AIDS has taken the more productive members of households, which means production has stopped altogether in some cases," World Food Programme emergency coordinator, Sarah Laughton, told IRIN. She added that the spike in maize prices over the last year had also seriously compromised the ability of poor rural households to feed themselves. "Maize prices have increase by close to 50 percent over the last year, which is a heavy blow to those already struggling to feed themselves. The purchasing power of many families has in some cases has been eroded because of their inability to work the land and produce anything for sale," Laughton said. The government assessment highlighted that children were particularly hard hit by the pandemic, with a projected 120,000 under the age of 15 losing both parents to AIDS. The resulting child-headed households are among the most vulnerable to malnutrition.