HIV and AIDS in Africa: Beyond Epidemiology

AIDS is devastating many areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Over twelve million people in the region have died of AIDS in the past decade. Over 29.4 million people in the region are infected with HIV. Of the eleven people who contract HIV each minute in the world, ten live in sub-Saharan Africa.With no known cure and no vaccine as yet available, an estimated 60 per cent of Africans under the age of eighteen today will be dead of AIDS before they reach 45 years of age. Most prevention programs have largely failed because the research behind them has focused primarily on risk groups, behavioral change models, and flawed understandings of cultural practices. HIV and AIDS in Africa: Beyond Epidemiology seeks to shift the predominant understandings generated by biomedical and epidemiological research, recognizing that HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa is a complex and regionally-specific phenomenon rooted in local economies, deepening poverty, migration, gender, war, global economies, and cultural politics. International contributors from across the social sciences further our understanding of AIDS by looking at the epidemic from angles often inadequately explored. Ultimately, the underlying message of every contributor to this book is that AIDS is not going to diminish in Africa until social, gender, and economic inequities are addressed in meaningful ways.