Risking death for survival: peasant responses to hunger and HIV/AIDS in Malawi.

摘要

Malawi registers the eighth highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world. The increasing HIV prevalence in rural areas of Malawi is analysed in relation to the famine experienced in 2001-02. Villagers are assessing survival risks based on the perceptions of relative manageability. A sense of powerlessness concerning their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS leads them to focus on a more immediate concern, which is to ensure their day-to-day food needs. Moreover, the changing rural land and labour patterns calls for more transaction-based rural livelihoods, some involving high-risk sexual encounters, as a means of alleviating hunger..