Employment trajectories of PLHIV on ART in Lusaka, Zambia: a short report

ABSTRACT

The introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has helped mitigate many of the negative consequences of HIV. ART allows people living with HIV (PLHIV) to recover physically and become active members of society. Research thus far is positive about the potential economic impact of ART on household economies. In terms of employment, studies indicate that ART, when initiated early in disease progression, allows PLHIV to maintain their employment and, when initiated late in disease progression, allows PLHIV to return to work once they physically recover. This paper questions the latter by demonstrating that while the employment levels indeed return to normal or baseline levels, the type of employment that PLHIV obtain has undergone a shift. It demonstrates that the type of employment PLHIV are engaged in once they recover is largely less stable and less profitable than what they were doing prior to illness. It additionally demonstrates that PLHIV are engaged in work that is less stable and less profitable than their HIV-negative counterparts. I conclude that a closer inspection of the type of employment that PLHIV are engaged in is needed to provide a more accurate understanding of the impact of ART on the socio-economic status of PLHIV on ART.

KEYWORDS:

• PLHIV
• ART
• sub Saharan Africa
• HIV
• employment
• recovery

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Own business includes all respondents who mentioned they sold goods, were marketeers, sales lady/man and/or business person. The size and type of own business ranged from respondents selling tomatoes at the side of the road (near their home) to a select number of respondents who ran small informal shops (locally known as kantemba’s) by the side of the road or market stands with a range of household goods, food or second hand clothes.

2 Piecework in Zambia is quite a common term used to describe any odd job that someone can find. Typically, people mention piecework as their source of employment if they hold no employment and are dependent on the day-to-day work that they can find. A common example of the type of piecework that was mentioned was that of laundry washing. Here people handwash the laundry of more affluent households.

3 At the time this research took place Lusaka was and had been expanding rapidly and there was a boom in the number of people who were building houses/flats. As a result, many respondents at the time reported they were working in construction jobs (e.g. carpentry, builders, brick-layer, painter, plumber). Largely though it was unclear what employment status people had in these construction jobs. Where it was unclear whether people had formal jobs in construction companies, were informally employed on project basis or ran their own business they were grouped together under the heading jobs in construction.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University of Johannesburg.