Study findings imply that drought triggers behavioural changes as people struggle to battle poverty and food insecurity through activities such as transactional sex. 

Due to climate change, droughts are likely to become increasingly common in the future, which could lead to higher instances of HIV transmission. Sub-Saharan Africa will be one of the regions most affected by climate change, with increasing risks of drought caused by changes in precipitation and limited water storage, as well as limited capacity and resources to support adaptation. Drought is an ongoing and worsening trend in sub-Saharan Africa, with the percentage of land experiencing severe drought increasing from around 5% to 15% since 1901. 

"Women in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa who had recently been exposed to drought were more likely to acquire HIV than those who had not been exposed to drought. 

"That we found this among women in rural areas, but not women in urban areas or men in either rural or urban areas corroborates previous studies indicating that the mechanism through which drought may increase HIV risk is that drought pushes women who rely on farming for their livelihoods into sex work for money or food. 

"Even if these changes were small, the large number of people living with HIV in Africa and the large percentage experiencing drought means that the effect of droughts could still result in many people acquiring HIV in this situation, particularly when you consider that around 65% of Africa's population relies on subsistence farming." 

Read the full University of Bristol news item

Paper: 'Investigating the associations between drought, poverty, high-risk sexual behaviours, and HIV incidence in Sub-Saharan Africa: a cross-sectional study' by Adam Trickey et al. in AIDS and Behavior [open access]