AFRICA: WHO report reveals impact of AIDS on older people

The HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa is posing an additional burden on older people caring for their HIV-infected adult children or orphaned grandchildren, further increasing their vulnerability to poverty and poor health, a new report found.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) report, 'Impact of AIDS on Older People in Africa', is based on a 2001 case study in Zimbabwe of 685 older people caring for HIV-infected relatives.

Older people were often left to provide this critical care on their own, in poverty, without recognition and in poor health. The report found that two-thirds of older caregivers are women, with many facing financial hardships as they lose economic support from AIDS-related deaths and illness, making them unable to pay for medical or school fees, reducing their access to basic needs such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care.

Many older caregivers also faced physical and emotional stress from increasing levels of violence and abuse - often as a result of accusations of witchcraft.

The study cautioned that unless these older people were in good health, they could not continue to care for their HIV-infected relatives. It called for a change in the attitude of health workers and other service providers, as well as a change in the policies of health and other agencies to ensure that older people had access to proper social, economic and emotional support.

"The contribution of older people as caregivers for their children dying from AIDS and of their orphaned grandchildren - Africa's future human capital - is as vast as it is unsung, unrewarded and unsupported," Alex Kalache of the WHO Aging and Life Course team, said in a statement.

"However obviously important, such contribution is, by and large, ignored by societies," he added.

To access the report: http://www.who.int/hpr/ageing/hivimpact.htm