Zimbabwe: HIV, AIDS - the Elderly's Role Neglected. 13/7/10
The devastating effects of HIV and Aids have been felt in the old aged population
By Conrad Gweru
13 July 2010
Harare — The devastating effects of HIV and Aids have been felt in the old aged population, mainly because the active population is being wiped out leaving old parents and children to look after each other.
The change in the demographic composition of the Zimbabwean population owing to Aids is such that older persons and children are left behind without any means of livelihood.
This means older people have become primary care givers of the sick and orphans but they have no clear means of looking after themselves. They are not adequately recognised in current country policy and interventions on HIV/Aids.
The impact of HIV and Aids on older people is under-reported in terms of them looking after orphans as well as their infection rates.
Focus here is on the challenges faced by the aging generation and possible policy interventions as well as possible interventions by the donor community.
The effects of HIV and Aids on all sections of the community are immense.
A lot has been discussed on the effects of the pandemic at various fora to some length, but only inasfar as the virus affects the younger generation or the so-called sexually active age groups.
Yet this dreaded condition has come to affect all social groupings.
Unfortunately very little attention has been directed at exploring the effects of the pandemic on our aging population.
In order for universal access to treatment, care and support to be truly achieved, there is need to channel resources towards the aged as they are making immense contribution in today's society although with limited resources.
A number of older persons who look after orphans and the sick do not benefit directly from programmes meant to combat HIV and Aids. They are currently marginally involved in the design, delivery and monitoring of the programmes.
Policies either deliberately or by default exclude older persons from active contribution to the programmes. Elderly people bear the brunt of taking care of terminally ill and orphaned grandchildren, yet with reduced access to sustaining adequate incomes.
HIV is intricately bound to the challenges of poverty and impacts older persons in one or more of the following ways.
As the infected through sexual activity and when providing care to adults infected with the virus and secondly through caring for grandchildren orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV and Aids, although with very limited resources and or knowledge to do so.
UNAids, which leads the global response to the pandemic, currently uses 25 core indicators to monitor progress in tackling HIV and Aids, yet none of these monitors the impact on or prevalence among the over 50 years.
This exclusion is leading to a critical lack of awareness of the effects on older people, and their neglect in national and international responses. As a result, many are unable to access vital information, treatment and support.
None of the 25 core indicators address who is providing care to people living or affected by HIV and Aids, nor measure the support these care givers receive.
Without this information, appropriate assistance to people and those under their care cannot be delivered. As an example indicators used to measure number of sexual partners and condom use focus solely on the 15-49 age groups, perpetuating the false assumption that people over 50 no longer have sexual relations, of which this is simply not the case.
Until all age groups are included in the global response, the international goal of universal access to prevention, treatment, and care by 2010 will not be achieved.
Traditionally older persons are a group of people who should be looked after by their families but in this era they are now exposed to the "mammoth" task of caring for family members living with HIV and Aids as well as orphans. This caring role strains older people who are already struggling to make ends meet.
Some of the children under the care of older persons are living positively and one cannot dispute that without adequate knowledge of the virus, palliative care for these children can be strenuous in terms of accessing resources as well as general health of these children.
They lack regular income support, they struggle to ensure that their grandchildren receive education, they are not receiving adequate information to access their rights and entitlements and to protect themselves in their critical care giving role and they are challenged to maintain their health and that of those under their care.
The increase in home based care and orphan care due to Aids places an enormous burden on the elderly, especially women.
In developing countries like Zimbabwe, where the welfare system has limited resources and is under extreme conditions of poverty, stigma, lack of support and abuse resulting from witchcraft accusations and other challenges faced in old age.
In its State of the world report in 2007, Unicef acknowledged for the first time the roles of older persons who care for children orphaned by Aids.
In Zimbabwe 60-61 percent of orphans are under the care of older persons.