Abstract:
The HIV/AIDS pandemic is a global crisis with consequences that will be felt for decades to come. Though there are many chronic diseases in Kenya, HIV/AIDS is presently having a devastating effect by threatening the food production systems, intensifying poverty prevalence, increasing nutritional implications, creating more orphans than existing social networks can cope with and basically affecting all indicators of socioeconomic development in the country. Decreased productivity, along with an increase in medical expenditures often results in a worsening livelihood security situation for people living with HIV/AIDS and other members of their households. The ability of households and communities to ensure their food and nutrition security in the face of AIDS is being severely challenged. Livelihoods are being eroded through the effects of premature illness and death on household labor power and through the fracturing of intergenerational knowledge transfer. Social relations and capacity to care are being put under immense strain by HIV-related stigma and exclusion, increasing orphaning rates, and reduced incentives for collective action. Financial stress is increased as expenditures for health care and funerals increase, and as credit becomes harder to access. A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the expenditure patterns on food and non-food items of the affected and non-affected households. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 160 respondents. An interview schedule was used to collect the information. Measures of central tendency as descriptive statistics and chi-square statistic as an inferential statistic were used to analyse quantitative data. Data revealed that there is a significant relationship between HIV/AIDS status and expenditure patterns on food and non-food items. Most affected households had most productive persons affected by HIV/AIDS. Thus, people living with HIV/AIDS, their families and communities are overcome by the effects of the pandemic. It is recommended that the Ministries of Health Planning and Development and Agriculture can save families from the effects of HIV/AIDS by instituting food security interventions based on sound, sustainable agricultural practices. The study will benefit the community, hospital, government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through the findings which will help improve the existing policies and programmes.
