UN 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 UN 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 were women, with many facing financial hardships as they lost economic support from AIDS-related deaths and illness.

The caregivers were unable to pay for medical or school fees, and there was reduced access to basic needs such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care, the study noted.

"Food has become scarce. The children have lost their inheritance, as relatives took everything, and we have nothing to give these orphaned children. These events have made it impossible to pay rent and electricity bills, and this year we had to move into a shack so that we could at least try to save some money," a 51-year-old woman caring for three school-aged orphans was quoted as saying in the report.

Another major concern was the stigma and rejection often experienced within the community.

Many older caregivers also faced physical and emotional stress from increasing levels of violence and abuse - often as a result of accusations of witchcraft, as people believed that people living with HIV/AIDS had been bewitched.

Negative attitudes from health workers was also one of the major hindrances to older people's ability to provide adequate care. Up to 60 percent of the older people interviewed got most of their health care support from health workers, the study found.

The study 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.

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

Access the report