Impact of HIV/AIDS Burden on Economic Growth in Selected Sub- Saharan Africa (SSA) Countries: Evidence from a Dynamic System GMM Estimates

The book is a development of the author’s long standing interest in health economics which peaked with a PhD thesis in the area. The global AIDs epidemic has claimed more than 35 million lives since 1981 and well over two–third of the deaths (approximately 24 million) were from the SSA region, with no end in sight. No doubt, the epidemic is multidimensional in prevalence, webbed in a long-wave crisis with an over-stretching impact on human capital development and economic growth running into decades in the region. Vulnerability due to the epidemic prevalence was a new vista, particularly, as it was seen to have dwarfed few economic gains made by less developed countries in the region.

The book is sound in policy issues as it creates opportunity for development professionals to assess the level of the epidemic impacts and costs in the region where most of the countries have low economic activities in the midst of rising socio-economic expenditure with weak fiscal positions. Furthermore, helps in designing appropriate trade, tourism and financial inter-linkages related-interventions, preventive measures and development policy strategies in the region including conditional convergence growth pattern aimed at enhancing sustainable economic growth.