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HIV and AIDS in Africa: a geographic analysis at multiple spatial scales

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Abstract

This study offers an alternative method rooted in GIS techniques and spatial analysis to estimate HIV/AIDS prevalence over space from an incomplete surveillance data set and explain the variation of those estimates. The results clearly show that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is complex and that it is interconnected with other geographic, historical, economic and cultural phenomena which help explain its spatial spread and variation. The regression models which were developed in this paper illustrated that variables which measure the historical context of colonialism such as resource exploitation and labor migration, gender, culture, contemporary global forces, poverty and disease burden have all contributed variously to the rapid spread of this disease both in space and time. The policy implication is that concentrating on behavior change or therapy alone may not turn the epidemic around. The attack needs to be multifaceted and interdisciplinary taking into consideration the context and the economic and social realities at multiple spatial scales.

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Notes

  1. The Digital Chart of the World was obtained from Penn State University Libraries at http://www.maproom.psu.edu/dcw/; the population data from the LandScan™ Global Population Database, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, available at http://www.ornl.gov/landscan/; and the elevation data from a Miombo Network CD-Rom.

  2. Though the 1992 transport network is rather dated, it comes from the most comprehensive global dataset as of December 2008.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Centra Technology, Inc. for providing the data set that led to the geographic and statistical analysis and construction of the maps contained in this paper. We also wish to acknowledge the valuable comments we received from the individuals who graciously reviewed this paper. Their comments were very constructive and resulted in a much stronger paper.

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  1. National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA, 22230, USA

    Ezekiel Kalipeni

  2. Department of Geography, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Leo C. Zulu

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  1. Ezekiel Kalipeni
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  2. Leo C. Zulu
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Correspondence to Ezekiel Kalipeni.

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Kalipeni, E., Zulu, L.C. HIV and AIDS in Africa: a geographic analysis at multiple spatial scales. GeoJournal 77, 505–523 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-010-9358-6

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