How HIV/Aids inhibits rural development

It is now just over twenty years since the first incidence of the HIV/Aids virus was reported in the country.

It was first reported as a disease between 1978 -79 in the West Lake Region (Kagera) and named by the local people as Juliana in reference to shirts imported from Burundi which entered the country just at the same time.

Later the people called it �slim� in reference to infected victims who quickly lost weight.
The threat to life posed by the killer disease is real and there are families who have lost whole working members, leaving behind orphans and old people, yet some people seem not to have taken up the danger seriously.

Organizations that are engaged in the war against AIDS have warned people to take all the necessary precautions to avoid more new infections.

However, AIDS exists and continues to spread while its effects are still haunting us.

When the disease was first reported, it looked more of an urban. But due to migration of people from rural to urban areas, interactions are more frequent as more infections occur.

As we are getting close to the end of the 21st century, our major challenge in Tanzania and indeed other African countries is to tackle and find permanent solutions to the pervasive problem of HIV / AIDS which is now affecting the development efforts particularly in the rural areas where the majority of the population (80%) live.

The virus has increased the problem of poverty and human destitution.

Science and technology, as well as industrialization have a leading role in alleviating the existing poor economic and social situation in the country.

But AIDS has taken and continues to take away the intelligence that would lead the country to achieving the above.

Clear understanding of the causes of and manifestations of AIDS in rural areas as well the needs of the rural poor is essential if the war against AIDS is to be successful.

AIDS Control Committee in Tanzania says that AIDS is preventable.

In Africa the disease is reported to be on the increase, over 400 Africans are contacting the disease every hour and over 6, ooo people die every day.

Some African cultures which demand sharing of problems, this means more than one percent of affected victims are not engaged in production.

It is reported that over 5 million died of AIDS in the year 2002 and the number was estimated to have risen to over 8 million.

Most of these are in their productive and reproductive prime with several negative consequences for economic development.

But why has AIDS been singled out as a major problem to the world`s economic achievements especially in the developing world?

AIDS World report shows that there about 6,000 people who die from the disease every day. This means over 2 million die every year and the number of people contracting the disease is reported to be on the increase.

But why has it become difficult to control the disease? I recall on one of the warnings given by the second phase president Ali Hassan Mwinyi. He warned people to be careful with the disease, because it was located in a sensitive area.

All campaigns are directed to a call for people to practise safe sex through increased use of condoms, but from the African behaviour this has proved difficult and so the disease continues to be on the increase.

The third phase president Benjamin Mkapa declared HIV / AIDS a national disaster, and called on each person from family to national level, to engage in the battle against this killer disease.

Through changing our sexual behaviours and taking all precautionary measures the war against AIDS will be won