The Impact of HIV/AIDS Expenditure on HIV/AIDS Incidence Rate in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Over the last two decades, HIV has been the greatest public health challenge confronting the world. The threat that HIV/AIDS has posed to the health of citizens across the world has been severe making it the most devastating pandemic and this has led nations to declare it a national disaster. Sub –Sahara Africa has been the most affected region. There are approximately 6,000 new HIV infections occurring on daily basis mostly in developing countries with young people in the age bracket (15-24) years representing more than 33% of the total new HIV infections. In 1990, the global HIV incidence rate was 0.03 percent and in 2015, the rate stood at 0.04 percent. On the other hand, there has been a rising trend in HIV/AIDS expenditure. For the period 2000 to 2015, $562.6 billion was directed towards HIV fight globally. While the response to AIDS menace has been incredible demonstrating global unity and transformative collective responsibility, deep concern has been expressed on the number of new infections as 90% of the newly infected persons lived in 35 countries. Majority of these countries are in the sub-Saharan Africa. This study used a longitudinal research design whereby data from 11 sub-Saharan countries on HIV/AIDS expenditure and HIV/AIDS incidence rates over a number of years were analyzed. The study conformed to a number of studies that have shown that there exists a relationship between HIV/AIDS expenditure and HIV/AIDS incidence rate. Therefore, to reduce new HIV infections, there is need to allocate more resources.