An in-depth Study on the impacts of Operation Murambatsvina Table 11: Care and Treatment of members with HIV/AIDS Before OM After OM Who is/was providing care? Family members 74% 68% Trained home-based care 63% 24% providers Clinic 35% 33% No-one 5% 21% What treatment were/are you on? Nevirapine 20% 7% ART 61% 33% Opportunistic treatment [e.g. TB] 19% 11% No treatment 19% 46% Other treatments 39% 40% On more detailed interviewing of the consequences, it can be seen, in Table 11 above, that, in every area of care and treatment, the HIV/AIDS households have seen significant and negative changes. There is little change in access to clinics, but it must be remembered that most clinics can offer little in the way of medical treatment, except for opportunistic infections. However, very large percentages have lost access to care and treatment, with significantly high numbers receiving no care or treatment. Here we should bear in mind the comments from ZADHR, that interruptions to HIV/AIDS treatment can have a variety of consequences, both for the individual patient and the population as a whole. Table 12 [below] indicates the numbers now indulging in “risky” behaviour, and, as can be seen, the frequencies are not trivial. The responses are entirely what might be expected by desperate people, and a response to being placed in a situation of extreme adversity as that occasioned by Operation Murambatsvina. Table 12: Changes in behaviour following OM Respondents that have engaged in or witnessed Proportion [%] risky behaviour as a result of OM: Casual relationship (sex) 45% Commercial sex 50% Stealing 69% Increased vulnerability and abuse of children 44% In conclusion, our data on the consequences of Operation Murambatsvina for the sufferers of HIV/AIDS are a cause for the deepest concern. The picture is wholly negative, and ranges from loss of care, even from families, and loss of nutritional support, through to the loss of vital medication, and finally, to higher rates of psychological disorder. These are not unexpected results, and could have easily been anticipated in the planning of Operation Murambatsvina; certainly these consequences could have been predicted by the Ministry of Health if it had been consulted prior to the launching of the Operation, and should now be acknowledged by the Ministry as an expected consequence of such an Operation. 22