Eastern and Southern Africa
Eastern and Southern Africa Brendan Girdler-Brown* ABSTRACT The countries included in this review are Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Very little research has specifically addressed the important issue of the relationship between migration and HIV/AIDS in these regions of Africa. However there is a great deal of information about migration, and also about HIV/AIDS, in isolation from each other. HIV/AIDS is widespread and prevalent throughout the two regions. Since HIV prevalence rates are now high in almost all African countries, the concern that migrants may bring the virus with them is no longer appropriate. Instead, the concern is that migrants may be vulnerable to acquiring the infection during migration, and that they may spread the infection when they return to their homes at the end of migration. In the eastern African region there has been rapid growth of urban populations during the last ten years, mainly as a result of rural to urban migration. In addition, the conflict in Sudan and disputes in the Horn of Africa have created large numbers of internally displaced persons. Most recently, conflict in the Great Lakes region has also resulted in very large numbers of refugees crossing international borders. The UNHCR estimates that there were approximately 1.3 million refugees from and in eastern African countries in 1997, and an estimated 5 million internally displaced persons (4 million in Sudan alone). In the southern Africa region there has been a rapid increase in rural-urban migration.
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