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

Malawi registers the eighth highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world. The rural population's increasing HIV prevalence is analyzed in relation to the impact of the country's 2001-02 famine. Villagers are assessing survival risks on the basis of perceptions of relative manageability. A sense of powerlessness concerning their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS leads to concentration on the more immediate concern of trying to ensure their day-to-day staple food needs. Changing rural land and labor patterns are militating for more transaction-based rural livelihoods, some involving high-risk sexual encounters, as a means of alleviating hunger. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.