AIDS and the Third World

As figures and graphs throughout this dossier indicate, new AIDS cases continue to rise more steeply, and only among homosexual men in the United States and a few European countries are there signs of a slowdown in the growth of HIV infection. The first major change in the AIDS situation since 1986 has been the insiduous entry of HIV to virtually every corner of the globe. Then, the first edition of this dossier concentrated heavily on Africa, because little data was available from other parts of the Third World. This third edition is much more truly global. While AIDS is only starting to gain a foothold in Asia, the Middle East and East Europe, there are now epidemics in Latin America and the Caribbean as severe as-and in many cases more severe than-those in North America, West Europe and Australasia. Previous claims that religion, culture or ideology afford effective protection from the AIDS virus have proved unfounded (Intro).

Blaming others: prejudice, race and worldwide AIDS

AIDS is overwhelmingly a sexually transmitted disease, although the virus which causes it can also be transferred through contaminated blood and from mother to child before, during, and possibly after birth. We have as yet no vaccine to protect ourselves against HIV, and there is no effective treatment for the illness once it develops. Although some therapies can slow down the process, people with AIDS usually die within a few years of developing sypmtoms... To understand how HIV spreads we need to know much more about sexual habits in different countries and communities. And the best way to slow the momentum of the virus in the community is sex education: persuading people to change the sexual habits which place them at risk (AU)

A disease of disadvantage: AIDS hits US Blacks and Hispanics

AIDS is still widely regarded as a disease which primarily affects homosexual white men in the United States. This picture is no longer true internationally-nor is it true in the United States itself. of all reported US AIDS cases, almost 40 percent occur in people of black or Hispanic origin, although these groups comprise only 19 percent of the US population (AU)

Origins of AIDS, origins of blame: early cases: The US, Africa, Europe, Haiti

When a new and deadly disease appears, it is natural to want to know where it comes from. So far, we do not know the origins of the HIV virus which causes AIDS. Much scientific effort (and far more wholly non-scientific speculation) has been devoted to this question. Unfortunately, the debate about the origins of AIDS has become hopelessly mixed with questions of who - which country, which race, is to blame for starting the epidemic (AU)

Sex and race

This chapter looks mainly at the reasons for the rapid spread of AIDS in Africa; it examines the roles of other sexually transmitted diseases. "promiscuity", prostitutes, and the possibility that susceptibility to HIV might be genetically linked. The AIDS virus is primarily transmitted through sexual intercourse. There are two key scientific factors which allow us to understand its spread: the likelihood that an infected person will transmit the virus tp a partner during sexual intercourse, and the frequency with which individuals acquire new sexual partners. Slowing down the spread of the virus requires both a reduction in the likelihood of its transmission during any single act of sexual intercourse, and a reduction in the rate at which new sexual partners are acquired (AU)

Different peoples, different messages

The style and content of government safer sex campaigns in Scandinavia or the United Kingdom are not likely to be culturally acceptable in the Caribbean or Africa. This chapter also examines the ways in which different Third World societies have been developing their own ways of educating people to protect themselves from HIV. The experience of the international family planning movement offers some interesting analogies; family planning, like AIDS prevention, requires education about sex (AU)

Blame and prejudice

Two parts of the developing world, Haiti and Africa, have received widespread publicity as the possible birthplace of AIDS. Haiti, a Caribbean nation whose people are racially of African descent, was singled out first (AU).