POVERTY, SEXUAL EXPERIENCE AND HIV VULNERABILITY RISKS: EVIDENCE FROM ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

• Published in: Journal of biosocial science Vol. 44; no. 6; pp. 677 - 701
• Main Author: SORI, ASSEFA TOLERA
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.11.2012
• Subjects: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome; Adolescent; Adult; Africa; Age Factors; AIDS; Biological and medical sciences; Epidemics; Ethiopia; Ethnology; Female; General aspects; HIV; HIV Infections - prevention & control; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Low income; Low Income Groups; Male; Marital Status; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Poverty; Prevention and actions; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Rape; Risk; Risk exposure; Risk Factors; Sex; Sex Work; Sexual Behavior; Sexual behaviour; Sexual Partners; Social inequality; Vulnerability; Ethiopia; Africa; Immunopathology; Poverty; Evidence-based practice; Sexual behavior; Retroviridae; AIDS; Vulnerability; Risk taking; Sociobiology; Immune deficiency; Lentivirus; Evidence-based medicine; Infection; Virus; Viral disease; Human immunodeficiency virus; Social aspect; Public health
• ISSN: 0021-9320; 1469-7599
• DOI: 10.1017/S0021932012000193

This study explores the relationship between poverty and vulnerability to HIV infection in Ethiopia using primary (quantitative and qualitative) and secondary data from two sub-cities of Addis Ababa. The data show that sexual experience is influenced by diverse factors such as age, gender, economic status and education level. Household economic status and migration explain the nature of sexual experience and level of vulnerability to HIV infection. Poor uneducated women in poor neighbourhoods are more likely to engage in risky sexual encounters despite awareness about the risk of HIV infection as they operate in an environment that provides the ‘path of least resistance’ (Lindegger & Wood, 1995, p. 7). This article argues that poverty provides a situation where early sexual initiation, ‘transactional sex’ and an inability to negotiate for safer sex are associated with low income, lack of education and increased vulnerability to HIV infection. This vulnerability is simultaneously contested and accepted as a commitment to even sacrifice one's life for the sake of one's loved ones. As a modest contribution to the ‘structural violence’ approach, which emphasizes social inequalities based on gender, class, ethnicity and race and inequalities in terms of exposure to risk and access to health care (Massé, 2007), this article challenges the ‘African promiscuity’ discourse, which ‘does not permit policymakers to think beyond sex’ (Stillwaggon, 2006, p. 156), and encourages researchers and policymakers to ask the right questions to understand the complexity of HIV/AIDS and seek solutions to the pandemic.