Recorded presentation

Marie Tien, MHS¹, Gilbert Kombe¹, and Felix Phiri². (1) Abt Associates Inc., 4800 Montgomery Lane, Suite 600, Bethesda, MD 20814, 301-718-3140, marie_tien@abtassoc.com, (2) Ministry of Health, Zambia, Assistant Director of Planning and Budgeting, Los Angeles Boulevard, Longacres, P.O. 39090, Lusaka, Zambia

HIV/AIDS is having a devastating social and economic impact on Zambia. Private household spending towards HIV/AIDS treatment, services, and care is a major concern for the country in the context of already limited resources. Additional information on behavior and ability to pay for care is needed to better target HIV/AIDS patients to create better government policies and programs. Using the National Health Accounts (NHA) HIV/AIDS subanalysis methodology, data on HIV/AIDS expenditure and utilization patterns was collected from 2098 patients across the country including 153 traditional healers interviews.

Initial findings reveal patterns in HIV/AIDS patients in terms of demography and spending. Fifty percent of women are unemployed and receive a majority of their income from other family members and through social welfare assistance. Financial support from family and friends are a major source of income for HIV/AIDS treatment and over half of an outpatient’s first visit goes towards a consultation fee followed by payment for medicine.

Traditional healing is emerging as an important response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic by providing patients with a series of services including herbs, spiritual healing, counseling, and psychosocial support. Preliminary findings report that 80% of their patients were suspected of to be HIV positive. It is important to note that about 70 patients went to traditional healers for their first visit after being diagnosed with HIV. With regard to out-of pocket expenditure, patients spent between $42 and $133 on consultations, spiritual healing, and herbs, which is significant amount given that 43% of the patients were unemployed.

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