COVID-19 pandemic: lessons from the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Southern Africa

ABSTRACT

Using Malawi as a case study, this commentary takes a retrospective view of the HIV/AIDS epidemic to draw lessons about the spread of, and government response to, Covid-19 in Southern Africa. With the legacy of colonialism and the distortions wrought in by structural adjustment programs still alive, we argue that the same factors that propelled the spread of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa continue to shape vulnerability and response to Covid-19 in decisive ways. Understanding the geography and political ecology of HIV/AIDS is key to discerning the social and political determinants of Covid-19, which provides direction regarding appropriate social policy responses.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV/AIDS
• Covid-19
• Malawi
• Southern Africa
• geography
• political ecology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul Mkandawire

Paul Mkandawire is a medical geographer whose research is broadly located at the intersection of global and public health and human rights. Paul’s is predicated on the premise that the promotion and protection of human health are intimately linked to the promotion and protection of human rights and social justice. He apply qualitative and quantitative methods to the investigation of dimensions that link the environment and human health, and of synergies between public health and human rights. Paul is also interested in providing a better understanding of how state and non-state actors mobilize responses to epidemics of global proportions and human rights and social justice implications of global health policies. Paul supervises graduate student research in areas relevant to my research interests.

Logan Cochrane

Logan Cochrane is an Associate Professor at HBKU (College of Public Policy), Assistant Professor at Carleton University (Global and International Studies) and Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University (Institute for Policy and Development Research). His research includes diverse geographic and disciplinary foci, covering broad thematic areas of food security, climate change, social justice and governance. Logan acts as a consultant for governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, seeking to create bridges between research and practice.

Shazia Sadaf

Shazia Sadaf teaches Human Rights and Social Justice in the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Her research interest lies in the intersectional areas of War on Terror Studies, human rights discourse, and post-9/11 Anglophone literature. Shazia holds a PhD. in English from the University of London, and an MA in English Literature & Language from King’s College London. Several of her articles have been published in reputable academic journals like Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, South Asian History and Culture, ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, the European Journal of English Studies, and The Literary Encyclopedia. She has also contributed chapters to the Routledge Companion to Pakistani Anglophone Literature(2018) and Violence in South Asia (Routledge 2019).