AIDS and poverty. Poverty and AIDS. One doesn’t cause the other,
but for children and families living in extreme poverty, AIDS is
especially devastating. Several factors multiply the devastation
caused by HIV/AIDS in developing countries. One is the lack of
prevention education. Another is the high cost of treatment and
the difficulty of getting the lifesaving medicinal tablets that
travel 10,000 miles to travel that last mile, into the hands of
the people who need them. To travel beyond the clinic and into
the slum. To travel down the dusty roads in the rural areas. And
up the hills and down into the valleys to the out-of-the-way
places. Other factors of poverty contributing to the incidence
of HIV/AIDS include: - poor health facilities - communication
and transportation difficulties - unstable governments - the
prevalence of environmental diseases Currently, less than 10
percent of HIV-positive children in need of treatment are being
treated. This year the World AIDS Day global focus is on zero
new HIV infe