The African Aids Epidemic By John Iliffe

HIV/AIDS has been responsible for one of the worst epidemics in history. In her book “The Invisible Cure” Helen Epstein details why Africa in particular was so devastated by the disease, which countries failed and which succeeded in the struggle to contain the virus, and why this happened. Epstein highlights a particular phenomenon, that first took place in Uganda, but which can be translated to many countries and situations, and which she calls “the invisible cure.”

When a fatal disease becomes known to a society but lacks explanation our instinct as humans is to jump to conclusions, whether they are logical or not. We bargain with our faith, we search for any evidence to support our conjectures, we deny the truth of the disease, and we place blame on each other. All of these desperate acts of justification are driven by fear—fear of the unknown. The combination of fear and ignorance that pushes people to make conclusions is readily notable in the AIDS epidemic of Haiti. Haitians reacted to AIDS in a similar manner as other cultures, but there are also differences that are specific to their community. Like many cultures, Haitians reasoned the occurrence of AIDS with explanations beyond the scope of medicine, with diseases that were known to them, or were instead in complete denial. The uniqueness of the occurrence of AIDS in Haiti was that there was no direct cause that could be addressed. Thus, while under significant scrutiny as the origin of AIDS, Haitians reacted to the epidemic by blaming the existence of AIDS on poor socioeconomic status, on sorcery, and on other people or countries.

It is often cited that the HIV/Aids epidemic that hit the United States in the 1980’s (though there is some evidence that it started even before then), came into light due to several high profile incidents and the eventual loss of several thousand lives. Many believe that due to

Throughout the Age of AIDS film many topics that were related to AIDS were brought up that I did not know anything about before. I did not know that there could so many strings attached to a disease and have such an influence in people’s lives whether it was negative or positive.

In the documentary “The Age of AIDS,” FRONTLINE examines the outbreak of AIDS since its first diagnosed case in 1981. The film investigates different medical, political and social environments under AIDS pandemic in the US and worldwide. The film not only focuses on the scientific research and progress in treating the disease, it also looks at the social stigma, government strategies and public campaigns around different countries.

The world as a whole should be mortified by what is happening in Sub-Saharan Africa. In places like Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho poverty, crime and systematic corruption are the tinder for the fire that is the HIV epidemic in Africa.

When the AIDS and HIV virus crept its way into the human-race, it quickly, and without warning, claimed the lives of millions. Then when its destructive wake had finally been abated, it left behind several untold mysteries. Throughout the course of this class, all the new material we have been exposed to has added some unique piece to the puzzle of the AIDS epidemic. Each puzzle pieces have ranged from speculations on how the AIDS epidemic had begun, to what exactly has the epidemic done. We have also tackled the question and how it forced a change in society. Our newest piece of the puzzle is the documentary “The Age of AIDS,” by William Cran. Although this documentary did not surprise me in its content, it did, however, affirm certain types

Paul Farmer says that the “Haitian AIDS epidemic…[is] best understood by taking the long view” (152). What he means by this is that you must look at the whole picture, you have to go beyond the surface to understand how and why it became an epidemic. You must at least be familiar with the Haitians history to understand their response to the epidemic, and how it spread all over Haiti.

In The Invisible Cure, Helen Epstein talks about why HIV/AIDS rate is so high in Africa compared to the rest of the world. Through the book, she gives us an account of the disease and the struggles that many health experts and ordinary Africans went through to understand this disease, and how different African countries approached the same problem differently. Through this paper, I will first address the different ways Uganda and Southern African countries, South Africa and Botswana in particular, dealt with this epidemic, and then explain how we can use what we have learned from these African countries to control outbreaks of communicable disease elsewhere around the world.

In the 1980s, a mysterious disease began to take the lives of Americans. With the cause unknown, a fear grew among Americans. An unusually high rate of people was becoming sick with strange and rare diseases. When experimental treatments failed to work, people died. This mysterious disease is what we now know as HIV–Human Immunodeficiency Virus. In the past thirty-five years, the HIV has taken many turns in history. Although we do not hear about HIV and AIDS now, it is still a prevalent issue in the United States and in the world.

In 2015, specifically in LA downtown, I met Sara who is an African American girl who was suffering from HIV virus. She told me her sadly story when she was having sexual things with random people just because of having money. She didn’t have any knowledge about this virus. So, because of that, she got the HIV virus, and she thanked god that she treated so long to be clean. So, some people in this world don’t know what the AIDS means. So, the AIDS is a dangerous virus that attack cells human’s immune system, and if the people who didn’t treat themselves in the hospital, they probably are going to die. It is dangerous because this virus happens when the human’s immune system badly damaged and it becomes impressible to opportunistic infections. When the number of the human CD4 cells decrease below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood, it is considered to have progressed to AIDS. People who have the AIDS virus need medical treatment to prevent death. Overall, it takes time to treat around one year, and without treatment it is typically survive about three years (AIDS.gov). According to Tony L. Whitehead that between June 1981 and October 1995 in United states that U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention got report of 501, 310 cases of AIDS. In addition, there were sixty-two percent of groups who have died, and although African American was represent only 12 percent of the United States, African American was represent 34 percent among them. In only five years, the

AIDS was first reported in Botswana in 1985. It seemed to have started from two male homosexuals within the region. From there, it spread through sex, needles, and combining blood. Since the virus was not familiar to anyone in Africa, the two men were clueless that they had the virus and continued with their everyday routines, which led to the cause of spreading the AIDS/HIV virus. AIDS continued to spread during the diamond boom, when as diamonds became a huge and more profitable commodity, there were more and more diamond mines operating in Botswana. The higher the demand for diamonds, the more mines needed workers. As a result, workers from different villages came to look for work in the diamond

“Since the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, 1.7 million Americans have been infected with HIV and more than six hundred and fifty thousand have died of AIDS.” (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). AIDS is a serious disease that needs to be treated from an early stage so that it helps long-term health from deteriorating. There are many scientists that have tried to form a vaccine for AIDS to help people around the world that suffer with it. Helen Epstein worked as a scientist in Africa in search of an AIDS vaccine. “AIDS INC” is a chapter from her book The Invisible Cure where Epstein observes different prevention programs in Africa. Its hard for the individuals in Africa to trust scientists coming from other countries and talk openly with them and that contributes toward social cohesion. Despite the fact that social cohesion has many different definitions Epstein focuses on talking openly with

HIV and AIDS have affected millions of people throughout the world. Since 1981, there have been 25 million deaths due to AIDS involving men, women, and children. Presently there are 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS around the world and two million die each year from AIDS related illnesses. The Center for Disease Control estimates that one-third of the one million Americans living with HIV are not aware that they have it. The earliest known case of HIV was in 1959. It was discovered in a blood sample from a man in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Looking further into the genetics of this blood sample researchers suggested that it had originated from a virus going back to the late 1940’s or early 1950’s. In 1999,

One common theory about the origin of AIDS is that the virus originated in Africa. They believe that AIDS was transferred to humans by route of either eating infected chimpanzees or their blood infecting a human through an open wound or sore. After the first human was infected, the infection soon spread as Brandon Keim wrote in “Early Spread of AIDS Traced to Congo’s Expanding Transportation Network”. “The number of infections soon tripled, and the virus’s range expanded.” It is said that HIV was transported to a Kinshasa by an infected individual by way of river down into the Congo. In that time, many of the people in the area were men and there was a vast sexual network in the city. Being so promiscuous led to the rapid spread. This is when they think the first outbreak of AIDS had begun. Within years it devastated parts of Africa, partially because they had no healthcare. They wouldn’t have had any way of knowing how to stop or treat the epidemic. Around the time of the greatest outbreak in Africa, doctors were noticing AIDS in the U.S. They believe that the virus was spread to the U.S. by air travel. This idea seems plausible because of the global trade economy of the U.S. With as many imports and exports as our nation has made in our history, it seems to be a possible explanation.