Investigating the effect of climate extremes and global warming on HIV outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa contains more than 70% of the world's HIV burden and will be the region most affected by climate change. Global warming will lead to more droughts and increased food insecurity (less stable access to food) in Sub-Saharan Africa. Food insecurity could cause HIV transmission to increase due to women selling sex for survival and HIV treatment being interrupted or less effective on an empty stomach. I will combine data on droughts with datasets on HIV risk behaviour, transmission, and treatment to investigate how times of droughts and food insecurity are related to HIV transmission and illness in Sub-Saharan Africa. I will use mathematical models to estimate how much effect global warming is currently having, and could have in future, on HIV outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa. I will also look at the effect of interventions (such as food parcels) to reduce the impact of food insecurity on HIV outcomes.