The AIDS epidemic and infant and child mortality in six districts of Uganda

Abstract

Several studies in sub-Saharan Africa have associated infant and child mortality with the AIDS epidemic in the region. The paper uses retrospective survey data of six districts in the east, south and west of Uganda to study infant and child mortality, which increased in the 1980s probably because of the AIDS epidemic and started declining in the early 1990s, a period when the epidemic was reported to be subsiding. Deeper analysis of data indicates that children whose parents are polygamous, educated, formally employed and in business are at a higher risk of death from AIDS and related illness. Although AIDS as a direct cause of death is the fourth leading killer of children, other serious diseases such as diarrhoea, respiratory infection and measles are associated with AIDS.