World Disasters Report 2008: Rising to the challenge of HIV in disasters and crises

All humanitarian programmes must integrate the complexity and long-term nature of HIV and AIDS to effectively tackle the epidemic.   

To effectively address what this year’s World Disasters Report calls a long-term and complex disaster, HIV should be given much higher priority in disaster management programmes, whether in  preparedness and risk reduction, or during emergency response and recovery.

The Report, launched globally on June 26 by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Caribbean regional representation office (CRRO) in collaboration with the Haitian Red Cross in Haiti, highlights the need for humanitarian organisations, working in partnership with governments and local communities, to increase the scale and scope of programmes for HIV prevention, treatment and care, and for tackling the associated stigma and discrimination.

According to UNAIDS, almost seven thousand people contract HIV every day – and without a major change in the epidemic’s trajectory, AIDS will claim millions more lives. Since 1981, more than 25 million people have died of AIDS, and some 33 million are currently living with HIV.

HIV is a disaster on many levels. In the most affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where prevalence rates reach 20 per cent, development gains are reversed and life expectancy halved.

For marginalized groups across the world – injecting drug users, sex workers and men who have sex with men – rates are on the increase. Yet they often face stigma, criminalization and little, if any, access to prevention and treatment services.

Disasters, man-made and ‘natural’, disrupt basic services, exacerbate other drivers of the epidemic, and can increase people’s vulnerability to HIV infection.

People living with HIV are among the groups most vulnerable in disaster and crisis situations. But, at the same time, they have much to offer and their fuller participation is crucial to tackling the epidemic. 

“This year’s World Disasters Report is the first to focus on one condition and with good reason. For sub-Saharan African societies that are torn apart by HIV and for numerous marginalized groups worldwide, who are left to cope with death, disease and destitution, HIV is undoubtedly a disaster,” said Rafael Olaya, regional representative for Haiti, Dominican Republic and Cuba, International Federation.

“The humanitarian community must rise to the challenge of HIV, especially in the context of the further challenges thrown up by climate change, migration, and the culture of violence that is prevalent in many societies”.  

Dr. Patricia Michaèle Amédée Gédéon, president, Haitian Red Cross said although global prevalence rates have apparently leveled off since 2001 (according to UNAIDS 2007 report) in certain regions of the world, they are growing.

”Despite differences between countries, the spread of HIV in the Caribbean has taken place against a common background of poverty, gender inequalities and a high degree of HIV related stigma. Migration between islands and countries is common, contributing to the spread of HIV and blurring the boundaries between national epidemics,” she added.

The Report not only analyzes the enormous economic, social and intellectual toll of HIV and AIDS but also details the vast challenges the epidemic presents to governments, humanitarian organizations and local communities.  HIV must be integrated as a cross-cutting issue in all forms of humanitarian assistance, including health care, nutrition, social programmes and security, whether in emergency operations, or in long-term developmental programmes. HIV, the Report contends, should not be set aside because other priorities seem to be more important.  

The World Disasters Report also includes a section on disaster statistics and analysis of global trends, supplied by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), based at the Catholic University of Louvain, in Belgium.

Overall, disasters in 2007 were slightly less numerous and far less deadly than in previous years but the total number of people affected by natural disasters, including floods, storms, droughts and geophysical disasters, rose sharply compared to 2006.