Week 1: Response to 'The African Aids Epidemic: A History' - John Iliffe

The worst epidemic occurred (is occurring) in Africa because this is the first epidemic of such a scale with such characteristics (pg.1), and neither the African governments nor the rest of the world were prepared to respond quickly and effectively. In addition, the context in which the first AIDS cases came to light is important as well – many of the governments were in their early years, just beginning to establish and maintain control, causing them to ignore the budding signs of a massive epidemic. However, once people recognized the seriousness of HIV/AIDS, the scientific community was quick to identify the virus and how it is transmitted, indicating the quick human ability to elicit concrete, factual knowledge. Yet, when we consider the conditions now, we see that HIV/AIDS has not abated, and actually continues to spread, despite our extensive knowledge in its transmission, prevention, progression, biology, epidemiology, etc. Our inability to create a vaccine and the impossibility to create a cure reveals the limitation of science. Thus, we cannot depend solely on scientific advancements to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic – rather, we must start changing our behaviors (and encourage others to do so) that put us at high risks. Further, behaviors such as practicing safe sex (through condoms use, abstinence, and/or faithfulness) will remain important to general sexual health, even after HIV/AIDS has been eradicated. However, there exist many factors that have contributed to the ‘rise’ and continuation of HIV/AIDS, which further reflect the complicated problem of eradicating HIV/AIDS – social and economic factors trigger many people to continue to engage in these risky unprotected behaviors. Thus, to get to the desired endpoint of a world where people have the liberty to make healthy sexual choices with all things considered, we must also eliminate those problems (e.g. gender inequalities, forced sex, sex workers, better education, etc.), which cause them to deprioritize their sexual health in the first place.