HIV/AIDS

Issue overview

© UNICEF Angola/2003 Pirozzi

UNICEF promotes the use of condoms as an HIV/AIDS prevention method

The first case of HIV in Angola was detected in 1988; however, very few systems were put into place to detect further cases. To a large degree, HIV/AIDS was ignored while the country waged an internal war that displaced approximately one-third of its population.

Comprehensive data on the HIV/AIDS sero-prevalence rate and demographic characteristics of the population of Angola are scarce. Latest reports from UNAIDS place Angola’s HIV/AIDS prevalence at 3.9%.

A recent survey conducted by CDC Atlanta on prevalence among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics indicated that 2.8% of the women where HIV positive. Percentages in border provinces such as Cunene and Uige are significantly higher, reaching 9.12% and 4.8% respectively. However, cautious needs to be exercised when considering these statistics as the control group of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Angola is very narrow (in general, fewer than 40% of pregnant women attend clinics).

As most of the local and international organisations working in post-war Angola agree, the scourge of HIV/AIDS represents Angola’s single-greatest challenge to recovery.

Ironically, the devastating civil war that bled Angola of so much gave Angolans a momentary buffer from HIV/AIDS. With so many transport routes closed, great tracts of Angola were closed to the movement of people, thus preventing a more rapid spread of the disease. However, this peacetime situation has now altered and Angolans have almost all of the risk factors associated with a rapid increase in sero-prevalence.

© UNICEF Angola/2005 Mendonca

UNICEF supported outreach activist, Amavel, conducts an HIV/AIDS awareness session in the market place targeting young boys

Important risk factors

The country’s large number of internally displaced persons (4million) who have now returned to their homes, together with increased contact with military personnel, low levels of education, a young population (nearly 70% of Angolans are under 24), a high poverty index, weak female autonomy, few protection mechanisms, destroyed social networks, very few places where people can have an HIV test voluntarily and confidentially and only one hospital in the entire country where treatment (ARVs) is provided to people living with HIV/AIDS.

Add to this: Angola is sexually charged country (with the world’s second highest fertility rate), where 70 percent of women have had at least one baby by the age of 20, and more than half the population is uneducated.

According to a recent study of knowledge, attitudes and behaviour in relation to HIV/AIDS: 

• 23% of youth reported having two or more partners in the three months prior to the study;
• only 55% of young Angolans used a condom with their last casual partner. This figure is even lower for trusted partners: 37% with a non-married “permanent partner” and 19% with a “marital partner”;
• only 9% of youth classified themselves as being at high risk for contracting HIV;