Vulnerable Groups

Fact Sheet

Updated February 2003

Almost half (44%) of the population in Ethiopia is under the age of 15 (MOH 2001).
While HIV prevalence (number of persons already infected with HIV) is highest in the 20-49 year old age group, the number of new infections each year is highest among youth ages 15 to 24.
Cultural taboo and lack of access to adolescent-friendly health services often discourage youth from obtaining accurate information about HIV/AIDS and contraceptive options.
Adolescent girls ages 15 to 24 are especially vulnerable to HIV infection: the number of HIV-positive women in the 15- to 19-year old age group is much higher than the number of HIV-positive men in the same age group.
Adolescent girls are also particularly vulnerable to other STDs, the presence of which greatly increases the risk of HIV infection. This is partly because a woman’s anatomy puts her at greater risk than a man of contracting HIV, but also because girls usually become sexually active at an earlier age than boys, and often take older sex partners who have, or have had, multiple sexual partners.

More than 1.2 million children in Ethiopia have had their mother or both parents die due to HIV/AIDS.
The predicted exponential increase in the number of children orphaned due to AIDS is likely to lead to an increased burden on social services, including orphanages, health care, and the educational system. Lack of these critical services will lead to an even greater economic and social burden on society as these children become adults.

A number of cultural, social, and biological factors place women at higher risk than men for infection with HIV/AIDS.
HIV-infected women carry a substantial risk (estimated at about 33%) of passing HIV to their children while pregnant, during delivery, or while breastfeeding. A vast majority (estimated at 90%) of the 200,000 HIV-infected Ethiopian children under 5 got the virus from their mothers in one of these ways.
73.4 % of commercial sex workers in Addis Ababa are estimated to be HIV-positive, up from less than 1% in 1985 (Aklilu et al, 1999). Similar increases in HIV prevalence among commercial sex workers have been noted in other urban areas of the country, including Dire Dawa and Bahir Dar.

Among active servicemen, the high-stress, single-sex environment of the military often encourages casual sexual relationships while on long tours of duty far from home.
Demobilized soldiers returning from areas of active combat often spread HIV unknowingly to their spouses and/or sexual partners at home.

Truck drivers, seasonal workers, and refugees/internally displaced persons (IDPs) experience long periods away from their home. Social disruption and loneliness while away is associated with higher incidence of casual sex and/or multiple partners, and consequently, higher risk of HIV.
Wives and children of seasonal and migratory laborers frequently resort to sex work to survive while the principal breadwinner is absent.

85% of the Ethiopian population is involved in agricultural production, primarily in rural areas where HIV awareness and general education levels are low. Because of lack of communication and transportation infrastructure, this audience is particularly difficult to reach with communication messages.
While HIV prevalence tends to be lower in rural areas than in urban areas, farmers have been implicated as likely carriers of HIV into rural areas.
Economic pressure, famine, and AIDS-related illness in the household yield less nourishing crops, smaller harvests, and intensified poverty, all of which encourage the further spread of HIV.

HIV/AIDS most commonly strikes people during their most economically productive years, making businesspeople a pivotal group to reach to prevent severe socioeconomic consequences of a decimated labor force.
The workplace provides an ideal organized context for delivery of behavior change messages.