Comments on: Overstating AIDS

By: AReaderFromHome

AReaderFromHome — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 22:00:02 +0000

I think actually that after they had used up enough money on one issue, they’d use the rest for another. Either way, it helps Africa.
And part of it IS education. Education would help to stabilize the government, making it more likely that they’d try to prevent diseases and establish hospitals. Education is partially NEEDED to help with AIDS/HIV, e.g. campaigns against premarital sex and sex with various partners educate people not to do that kind of thing. So that could kind of escalate into formal education, and more things would be taken care of.
Thanks for writing your article. Articles are good for homework. :) Not that I have any, I could have kids with homework…

By: Ron Hudson

Ron Hudson — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 16:49:15 +0000

I sought an email address on your site, but could not find one. Please forgive me for writing to you in a comment.

My name is Ron Hudson and I have been living with HIV/AIDS since the early 1980s. In June, I founded the International Carnival of Pozitivities (http://www.internationalcarnivalofpozitivities.blogspot.com) to provide a forum for people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, as well as to their families, friends, caregivers and policy-makers.

I just found your article about the overstatement of the per capita HIV infection rates in Africa. I was wondering if you would mind submitting it to the Third Edition of the Carnival by 2 Sep 2006 at midnight US eastern time. You can find the submission form at the Carnival homepage listed above.

Safe Journeys!

Ron Hudson

By: quinn

quinn — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 04:38:46 +0000

I wouldn’t jump to conclusions that the numbers were purposely overstated. Those sorts of stats are hard to collect, and it could very well be an accident. I try to give people, especially people doing a difficult thing, the benefit of the doubt. But I might be too nice that way. I imagine going forward, we’ll find out more by who continues to use old numbers vs new.

I wonder if much money that would have gone to malaria got redirected to HIV. People in the developed countries get HIV, not malaria, and that influences things all the way up.

OTOH, whether the perception of Africa as a victim cause it to be seen as HIV ridden, or HIV has contributed to Africa being seen as a victim, it’s al very annoying.

By: alice b.

alice b. — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 11:51:22 +0000

Amen! The same could be said about Haiti and many other non-african countries, I’m sure. With Haiti, it’s not so much AIDS (although that’s there too) but “violence”, “unrest” and “poorest country in the western hemisphere”. That’s why I make sure to talk about more than politics, violence and poverty that we always read about on my blog… I hope journalists don’t realize how much harm they do when they only cover the bad… Otherwise, maybe it’s time to really start quantifying the ways in which they do hurt and the ways in which “reputations” built on sensationalism can impoverish…

By: Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Africa:Overstating AIDS

Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Africa:Overstating AIDS — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 09:45:44 +0000

[...] My Hearts in Accra comments on the presentation of AIDS in Africa and the tendency to misrepresent the actual figures… Africa is hurt in some complicated ways by the reinforcement of the equation “Africa = AIDS”…..How hard will we have to work to get people to understand what the crisis really is… and really isn’t? [...]

By: sokari

sokari — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 08:59:22 +0000

There is much money to be paid out of AIDS by NGOs, the UN, drug companies and so on who all have a vested interest in perpetuating or overstating the problem on the continent. There are a number of factors that need to be addressed on the AIDS issue. The refusal to recognise that Africa is vast continent rather than one big country and thereby conflate the whole mass into one bigs AIDS arena is yet another reason why the focus on AIDS is overstated, often misdirected and contributes to wastage. A second problem is the focus needs to be on primary health care including nutrition rather than on one illness.

Nonetheless I believe it is possible to focus on AIDS in the context of an overall Health Policy relative to the incidence of the illness on a country by country basis AND discuss Africa’s business potential in a positive manner. We have to be careful that we do not overstate or understate because the reality is that the majority do not have adequate health care and do live in relative poverty. The business and investment sectors need to be promoted but please let us not deceive ourselves by closing our eyes to the social injustice and poor governance.

By: betsy

betsy — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 05:21:28 +0000

This is fascinating. If I were to speculate wildly about something outside my area of expertise (and I am about to, right now) I’d say that tackling AIDS may be more appealing to many not only because it’s a terrifying illness that rakes in the big dough, but also because it appeals to the unfortunate desire of many to demonize sex and marginalize Africans, along the lines of “if only those backwaters could learn to control themselves.” Of course, there are many, many people working in less heavy-handed ways to curb the spread and effects of AIDS (drugs, condoms, etc.) but it’s easy to see how it becomes a hot-button, attention-grabbing issue to the exclusion of others.

Anyway, thanks for the food for thought.