Zimbabwe

There are currently about 1.2 million people living with HIV in Zimbabwe which is nearly one tenth of the population. 150,000 of those are under the age of 14 and half of all child deaths (ages 5 and under) are due to HIV/AIDS. Similar to Kenya, the government of Zimbabwe was slow to respond at first. However, the response has still been slow mostly in part to a series of devastating social and political issues. The government of Zimbabwe, run by President Mugabe, has been subjected to scrutiny from the international world for years which has hindered many HIV/AIDS efforts. Some foreign donors have been reluctant to get involved in the country due to its political turmoil. Other socioeconomic issues such as inflation, land resettlement, unemployment and food shortages have exacerbated the HIV problem. Despite this grim picture, the prevalence rate of HIV in the country has been on the decline. However, the political, social and economic issues of Zimbabwe stunted its ability to make substantial progress regarding HIV/AIDS and the country still has a long way to go.

            Zimbabwe’s history and issues are very interesting and a simple search of “Mugabe” produces an incredible amount of biographies and memoirs of people living under his rule in Zimbabwe. As usual I recommend UNAIDS website (http://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/zimbabwe/), the CIA World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/zi.html) and this article which addresses the connection between the political and social issues in the country and the HIV epidemic (http://www.prb.org/Articles/2004/ZimbabwesPoliticalandEconomicProblemsHinderEffectiveResponsetoAIDS.aspx).