HIV/AIDS
and Population
Why
should we focus on HIV/ AIDS issues in
population programme?
 Young
men and women who are sexually active and
who constitute the workforce of the country
are the most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. Every
14 seconds, a youth is infected with
HIV/AIDS and youth (increasingly women)
account for nearly half of the new cases of
HIV infection worldwide, according to the
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) State
of the World Population Report 2003.
High
mortality among youth will result in loss of
productive labour and an increase in the
number of dependants - children and the
elderly. This clearly will bring with it
greater impoverishment, ill-health and
economic decline. Since the ultimate aim of
population programmes is to ensure an
improved quality of life for the people, not
merely reduce numbers, prevention of
HIV/AIDS becomes an important component of
population programmes.
Worldwide,
population growth has been brought down by
reducing death rates and limiting fertility,
not by allowing people to succumb to
disease.
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