An in-depth Study on the impacts of Operation Murambatsvina Sexual abuse Feeling dependent Mean Total Trauma scores: 2.3% 1.5% 3.8% 1.8% 2.9% 3.7% 11.5% 6.4% 17.8% 14.3% 30.3% 46.4% 1.1[3.1] 1.3[1.6] 1.3[1.6] 3.1[3.1] 4.4[3.4] 6.2[3.5] 4.2 HIV/AIDS In the previous national survey, a total of 23,511 households were surveyed, with a total population of 127,587, and an average household size of 5.5. The national survey attempted an estimation of the vulnerable groups within this overall population. These groups include; households hosting orphans, households with chronically ill members, female-headed households, elderly-headed households with no productive-age (18 to 60 years) members, and households headed by minors (less than 18 years) commonly referred to as child headed households. As a measure of vulnerability, the analysis classified all households into the above five categories. Most households interviewed demonstrated situations exhibiting vulnerabilities in several categories (39%). The breakdown showed the following: 1 category only: 12%; 2 categories: 36%; 3 categories: 39%; 4 categories: 8% and only 4% in the 5 categories. Chronically ill individuals were found to be present in 13.4% of households surveyed. Further analysis revealed that, in these 13.4% households, a total of 23,344 individuals were chronically ill. However, we felt that both these statistics may have been an underestimation due to the stigma still attached to HIV/AIDS. It has been estimated that the prevalence rate in Zimbabwe is approximately 25%. In the previous national survey we requested information on chronically ill individuals, those who have been ill for 3 months or longer prior to the study, and are suffering from a recurring illness, which results in loss of productive labour. This would include individuals with HIV/AIDS, TB and other long-term illnesses. Therefore, chronic illness is used as a proxy for HIV/AIDS since establishment of HIV/AIDS status would be both difficult and controversial. In the present study, we asked specifically about HIV/AIDS, and the data indicated that 23% of the sample was hosting at least one individual with HIV/AIDS. This was considerably higher than in the previous study – 23% as opposed to 13%. This represents a conservative number of households of about 5,407: this is an absolute minimum of 5,000 individuals whose lives are at risk. Of course, households may have more than one individual suffering from HIV/AIDS, and thus the actual number affected is much higher than this. 20