Social Determinants of Infectious Diseases in South Asia

Abstract

South Asian countries have developed infectious disease control programs such as routine immunization, vaccination, and the provision of essential drugs which are operating nationwide in cooperation with many local and foreign NGOs. Most South Asian countries have a relatively low prevalence of HIV/AIDS until now, but issues like poverty, food insecurity, illiteracy, poor sanitation, and social stigma around AIDS are widespread and are creating formidable challenges to prevention of further spread of this epidemic. Besides that, resurgence of tuberculosis along with the emergence of the drug resistant (MDR-TB and XDRTB) strains and the coepidemic of TB and HIV are posing ever-growing threats to the underdeveloped healthcare infrastructure. The countries are undergoing an epidemiological transition where the disease burden is gradually shifting to noncommunicable diseases, but the infectious diseases still account for almost half of the total disease burden. Despite this huge burden of infectious diseases in South Asia, which is second only to Africa, there is yet any study on the social determinants of infectious diseases in a local context. This paper examines various issues surrounding the social determinants of infectious diseases in South Asian countries with a special reference to HIV and tuberculosis. And, by doing so, it attempts to provide a framework for formulating more efficient prevention and intervention strategies for the future.