The two main public services which high rates of HIV will have an impact on are health services and schools.

Health Services

As more people become ill, the pressure on health services will increase. More medical staff will be needed to care for the people who are seriously ill. In many African countries over half the hospital beds are occupied by HIV/AIDS patients.

In addition to the staffing problem, more drugs will be needed to treat people. Even where HIV/AIDS drugs (ARVs) aren't available, other drugs such as anti-biotics will be needed to treat the infections that people are more likely to have because they have weakened immune systems.

Both the need for more medical staff and the need for more drugs means that more money will be needed to pay for health services.

However, at the local level, individual clinics and medical centres are already poorly staffed and equipped, and so public finance does not seem to offer an immediate answer.

Many ill people and their families in these circumstances resort to traditional healers for treatment and support. These, however, are even less likely to offer solutions to ill-health due to HIV.

Education Services

Unlike health services, the pressure on the education system may actually get less in areas with high rates of HIV-AIDS.

This is because of two main reasons:

1. Children who are born HIV+, and don't have access to ARVs, are unlikely to survive to an age at which they would go to school.

2. It is likely that more children will be needed to do work in the home and agricultural work to make up for the adults who are too ill to work. They will therefore attend school less regularly, and eventually drop out altogether.

However, even though there may be some immediate financial savings to governments because fewer people may go to school, at the local scale the fact that children aren't getting an education is seen as a major problem.

Most communities want to make sure that their children have a good schooling as this will benefit both the children and the community in the future.