Living by the hoe in the age of treatment: perceptions of household well-being after antiretroviral treatment among family members of persons with AIDS

This paper considers the effects of antiretroviral treatment on the households of person with AIDS in western Uganda. Interviews were carried out with 110 co-resident treatment partners'' of people receiving treatment. We discuss these family members' accounts of the impact of sickness, followed by treatment, on their household's livelihood, defined as the activities needed to obtain and process the resources required to sustain the households. The household's ability to muster labour for subsistence agriculture was of paramount concern when family members considered what treatment meant for the households. While they were very happy with the treatment, they said that households have not yet recovered from the shock of AIDS sicknesses.