Gone in Six Seconds: HIV/AIDS and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

Date
2007
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Producer
Director
Performer
Choreographer
Costume Designer
Music
Videographer
Lighting Designer
Set Designer
Crew Member
Funder
Rehearsal Director
Concert Coordinator
Moderator
Panelist
Alternative Title
Department
Haverford College. Department of Economics
Type
Thesis
Original Format
Running Time
File Format
Place of Publication
Date Span
Copyright Date
Award
Language
eng
Note
Table of Contents
Terms of Use
Rights Holder
Access Restrictions
Open Access
Tripod URL
Identifier
Abstract
Every six seconds, someone in world contracts HIV. Every ten seconds, someone in the world loses their life to AIDS. Sub-Saharan Africa bears the majority of the burden posed by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, as well as suffering the effects of decades of overwhelming and unrelenting poverty rates. This paper investigates the effect of individual and country-level characteristics on the determination of HIV-status, in an attempt to understand the complex relationship between HIV/AIDS and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Using linear probability models with a variety of measures of poverty and inequality, this study finds individual characteristics to be more jointly significant in the determination of HIV-status than country characteristics. Access to a toilet with running water and a reduction in the Human Poverty Index are found to be the most statistically significant variables in the reduction of an individual's probability of being HIV-positive. These findings suggest that poverty-reduction strategies aimed at mitigating the effects of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa should be directed at increasing the welfare of the region’s poorest individuals through increased access to resources in an effort directly decrease the number of individuals at a high risk for contracting the virus.
Description
Citation
Collections