Table 3 Summary of sectoral impacts of AIDS

GDP [41, 42]

• Annual decrease of between 2 and 4% with AIDS

Households [9]

• Decreased household income • Increased expenditure on healthcare

• More women and child-headed households

• More vulnerable to poverty

Firms [9]

• Increased healthcare costs

• Greater absenteeism

• Loss of skilled labour and institutional memory

• Decreased demand for goods → decreased income

• Lower staff morale → lower productivity

Agriculture [9]

• Loss of agricultural workforce:

• reduction in cultivated land → decreased yields

• smaller harvest size and less crop variety

• loss of agricultural knowledge

• lower remittances sent home

Education [9]

• Loss of teachers → reduction in supply and quality of educational facilities and services

• Increased medical and staff training costs

• Reduction in pupil numbers due to non-enrolment /sickness/deaths

• Reversal in progress made in primary education

Health [9]

• Absenteeism and deaths of health workers due to illness:

• reduction in supply and quality of health services

• increased training costs

• erosion of knowledge base

• Quality of care may suffer due to stigmatisation of HIV+ patients

• Increased public health expenses → higher burden on private health care system

• Increased demand for donor funding to address HIV/AIDS challenge

• High demand for AIDS treatment crowds out treatment of other diseases