Africa's Poverty, Politics Give Diseases Big Advantage

Poverty and politics are helping to spread preventable diseases in Africa, say health experts, who cite the recent polio campaign as an example relevant to the HIV, TB and malaria campaign. On the cusp of eradicating polio, an international vaccination campaign was suspended nearly two years ago in northern Nigeria by authorities after locals rumored the vaccine caused AIDS and sterility. By the time officials resumed the program, there were already polio outbreaks in Nigeria and 17 other previously polio-free countries.

In Sudan, more than two decades of internal conflicts have provided favorable conditions for infectious diseases, including HIV, TB, and polio. Besides making health workers' jobs difficult or dangerous, the conflicts destroyed what little health infrastructure existed, displaced populations and massed refugees into crowded, unsanitary camps. From Nigeria to Chad, polio's spread continued to Sudan's displaced populations and then into Yemen.

Armed conflict also capacitates HIV's spread in Africa, say many experts. HIV infects more than 20 percent of South African troops; nearly a quarter of Ugandan soldiers; 75 percent of Malawi's army; and nearly 80 percent of Zimbabwe's armed forces. Health workers fear that African soldiers -- who are often used as UN and African Union peacekeepers, including in missions in Burundi, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo -- are also spreading HIV.

"From the African continent specifically, we know that when there are conflicts where local populations are displaced and refugee situations emerge, that those environments become strong environments for increasing HIV transmission," said Paul Zeitz, director of Global AIDS Alliance. When African militaries are in operations, "there are problems at times where they get involved in sexual activity with local populations, with sex workers, rape increases in those environments," he said. "We know time after time that that is leading to increased risk for HIV transmission."

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