HIV/AIDS higher among disabled people

The scandal of HIV/AIDS in Africa is that in many African countries, people with disabilities have a higher rate of infection than non-disabled people, says Alexia Manombe-Ncube, Namibia’s first-ever disabled MP.

Disabled people’s overall exclusion from mainstream society is to blame, she asserts. Visually impaired people, for instance, cannot read health education posters or advertisements. People with hearing impairments miss television and radio programmes on how to prevent the spread of infection. Those with mobility problems sometimes cannot even enter health centres for advice or testing.

Health education materials are rarely available in alternative formats such as Braille or sign language. ‘How can a blind man buy or use a condom when its wrapper and instructions are not printed in Braille?’ she asks.

Disabled people are sometimes even directly targeted. Women and girls with intellectual impairments may be easily persuaded into having unsafe sex. Most shocking of all, disabled women are sometimes raped by HIV positive men in the mistaken belief that sex with a virgin can cure the condition.

Yet how many health service providers genuinely consider these issues in their programmes? Ms Manombe-Ncube is using her position to push for new laws on disability in the Namibian parliament. Without including access to both prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS for people with disabilities, it will be impossible to meet Millennium Development Goal 6: combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases.