Reflections on initial reactions and transmission patterns of hiv/aids in sub-saharan Africa.

Abstract

The sub-Saharan HIV/AIDS epidemic has since become a global concern, while the pattern and spread of the disease remain an extraordinary phenomenon. Despite glaring statistics and evidence of HIV/AIDS as a major health crisis, there was initial under-reaction, self denial, and subdued population response to the disease in the region in the eighties and early nineties. Many of the risk factors and problems associated with HIV/AIDS, including curable STIs, migration, poverty and gender violence were not adequately addressed. Political, business and other leaders either refused to acknowledge the impact of HIV on society, or believed that their particular sector would ‘weather the storm\'. After HIV became clearly established in South and Eastern Africa\'s general populations in the late eighties, the unity of purpose and commitment needed to limit and reverse the spread of infection were still clearly lacking. Although large health corporations considered the consequences of the epidemic, their attitude to it remained largely ambivalent.
This article is a review of HIV/AIDS in its early stages in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a historical perspective of the initial reactions and transmission patterns of a disease that was evident and prevalent in the eighties and early nineties but largely ignored by national and international governments until quite recently.


Keywords: Reactions, Sub-Saharan Africa, Transmission, HIV/AIDS, Epidemic.

Annals of Biomedical Science Vol. 3 (1&2) 2004: pp. 1-11