Environmental and Economic Factors That Increase Risk of HIV/AIDs

Newswise — In her new book, "AIDS and the Ecology of Poverty," Gettysburg College economics Prof. Eileen Stillwaggon combines the insights of economics and biology to explain the epidemic spread of HIV/AIDS among poor populations in developing countries.

According to Stillwaggon, HIV/AIDS flourishes where people are dying of other diseases that are almost unknown among affluent populations. People who are malnourished, burdened with parasites and infectious diseases, and lacking access to medical care are more vulnerable to all diseases, regardless of whether they are transmitted by air, water, food or sex.

"For policy makers and the general public, the fact that HIV is sexually transmitted diverts attention from the social, economic and biological context of profound poverty that makes sexual and mother-to-child transmission more likely in poor countries," Stillwaggon said. "The distraction of sex is compounded by Western notions about African sexuality."

The book delivers a telling critique of the behavioral explanation of the AIDS epidemic and the stereotypes that lie beneath it. It also shows that with current methods epidemiology and health economics cannot measure the interactions among diseases that make poor people more vulnerable to HIV. Prevention policies are narrow, shortsighted and dead-end. Drawing on a wealth of scientific evidence, Stillwaggon demonstrates that the HIV/AIDS epidemic cannot be stopped without understanding the ecology of poverty.

Stillwaggon was educated at Georgetown, Cambridge and American universities. Her research includes work in Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Argentina, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Lithuania and on the Ute Reservation in Utah. She also wrote "Stunted Lives, Stagnant Economies: Poverty, Disease, and Underdevelopment."

Gettysburg College is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences. With approximately 2,600 students, it is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. The college was founded in 1832.