August 1999

HIV/AIDS in Burkina Faso

In West Africa, Burkina Faso is, after Côte d’Ivoire, the second country most affected by the epidemic. HIV prevalence within the adult population is currently estimated at around 7 percent (UNAIDS 1998), affecting all social classes.

Since HIV/AIDS was first identified in Burkina Faso in the mid-1980s, the country’s response to the need for care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS and their families has been crippled by economic and structural limitations. All citizens bear the cost of their own medical care, a terrible financial burden in a nation where 44 percent of the population live below the poverty line (UNDP 1997). Resources for diagnosis, treatment, and care for those infected with HIV are inadequate. While HIV testing is available, the tests are too expensive for most Burkinabes. The country has only one comprehensive voluntary counseling and testing program, in Bobo Dioulasso. Knowledgeable medical and psychosocial care for those infected with HIV is also scarce; only those with higher incomes have access to better care and expensive treatments. Antiretroviral medications are available only to the very few who can afford them, but it is difficult to find doctors who understand the complexities of administering them. Drugs to treat opportunistic infections are more affordable, yet are seldom effective because few patients can afford a full course of treatment, and doctors seldom prescribe the cheaper generic drugs.

Research shows high levels of awareness about HIV/AIDS among the general population, many of whom understand that it is currently an incurable disease and can identify some of its symptoms (Desclaux 1997). They also know that it can be transmitted sexually and that condoms and limiting the number of one’s sexual partners are strategies for reducing risk of infection. There is little evidence of widespread popular denial of the illness (Nock and Joucla 1998: 12), as exists elsewhere in developing countries.

See Also

• Population Council – Burkina Faso
• Population Council – HIV/AIDS

For additional information please contact: 
Horizons 
Population Council 
4301 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 280 
Washington, DC 20008
Telephone: +1 202 237 9400 
Facsimile: +1 202 237 8410 
E-mail: horizons@popcouncil.org 

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This page updated
19 Oct 2007