Sub Saharan Africa Research Paper

HIV/AIDS is one of the deadliest diseases in the world. Although millions of people are afflicted with the disease throughout the world, this pandemic affects the continent of Africa the most by far. In Africa, the disease is increasing at an alarming rate. Even though increased effort is put in around the world to prevent AIDS, this widespread disease has increased significantly in the past decade. The toxic ailment continues to spread with a disturbing force and it has taken a long time to finally slow it down. In the late 2000’s, approximately 40 million people around the world were living with AIDS or the HIV infection, a significant rise from the 35 million diagnosed with AIDS in 2001 (Bertozzi). Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most impacted by the HIV virus; however, the disease is now growing and spreading into different continents such as Asia and countries in Eastern Europe as well as other parts of Africa.
So what exactly is HIV/AIDS? HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus which can eventually lead to the
disease called AIDS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, if the HIV virus does not get treated in a timely manner.
HIV is not a disease obtained through one’s genetics, however it is primarily a sexually transmitted disease that attacks the body’s immune system. In certain regions of Africa, men are known to have an extensive sexual network with multiple sexual partners which helps spread the disease. HIV occurs due to behavior like this and the environment as opposed to a congenital disease, which is inherited. Also, HIV is permanent and lasting, there are treatments for the disease but HIV will always be in the body. In the early 1980’s it was popular belief that HIV in the United States originated from homosexuals, hemophiliacs and drug users. This belief was proved wrong and bluntly ignorant to scientists who found that the HIV/AIDS virus came from a type of
Chimpanzee from West Africa because of the “Bushmeat Theory”. One of the vectors for this disease is infected blood. This disease came into contact with humans when chimpanzees were hunted and the infected blood from the chimp made its way to the human. The virus evolved from SIV (Simian Immunodeficiency Virus) to HIV. In addition, HIV is spread only in specific fluids from a person with HIV. Some of these fluids are blood, pre-seminal fluids, rectal fluids, and breast milk. HIV is most commonly transmitted by having unprotected sexual intercourse with someone who has the disease or sharing a needle with infected blood on it. HIV is a virus that attacks your T-cells, which are used to fight infections, uses them to make copies of themselves, and then destroys them. It is almost as if the body is destroying itself from the inside out. There are no obvious symptoms for this virus which is why it is known as the “silent killer” by many.
Although the awareness and treatment of HIV has come a long way, once thought of as a death sentence but not anymore in developed countries, the spread of AIDS/HIV is an intractable problem for many reasons. Moreover, treating people with HIV is a complex endeavor across the continent of Africa as I will explain throughout this paper. Countries in North Africa and the Horn of Africa have significantly lower HIV rates than other parts of Africa because it is proven that those people generally do not partake in higher risk or jeopardizing exercises including unprotected sex as opposed to other types of people. Southern Africa by far is the most affected region on the continent. As of 2011, the HIV virus has infected almost 10 percent of the population in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (Velayati). The part of medical geography that focuses on the geographic distribution of diseases is called spatial epidemiology.
There are many additional factors as to why certain areas of the continent are more heavily affected than others and as to why Africa as a whole is a more affected place than anywhere else. One of these factors is social status. Social status plays a pivotal part in the big picture of HIV and the AIDS virus in Africa. The disease is very stigmatizing, it is almost as if having the disease looked at as a taboo to society. Being infected with this virus could be extremely embarrassing to some people, these people may be ashamed of themselves as well. HIV/AIDS does much more to a person than physically harm their bodies. A majority of the people that have been diagnosed in Africa do not know much about the disease that took over their body and life which hurts them the most.
As described earlier in this paper, another factor that increases the spread of HIV is the culture in Africa. At first HIV was thought of as a homosexual disease, started by people of that sexual orientation. African leaders promised their people that they did not have to worry because this disease was started by gays in the “west” and that there are none in Africa. Many Africans governments were ignorant and did not care to pay attention to the pandemic that was destroying their communities. The number of people who contracted HIV that were heterosexual increased which disparaged the idea that the disease only occurred in homosexuals. In countries such as Cameroon, various other rumors were being spread to scapegoat this disease. These rumors included that HIV/AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease that can be passed from Fulani women strictly to non-Fulani men who had sexual contact with them. They also believed if a man had the disease as a result of having sexual contact with a Fulani woman, only a Fulani healer could treat him (Bongmba). This common idea is shared by many other African cultures who believe that HIV and AIDS started from women. HIV is such a controversial topic for African women to talk about that some feel threatened if they talk about their status to sexual partners, it is almost as if they have no right to talk about it. In Sub-Saharan Africa having HIV makes one feel like an outsider and makes it extremely uncomfortable to live. In every Sub-Saharan community HIV is seen equivalent to death. The common belief is that you are destined to die if it is found that you have HIV. Unfortunately, many people live with guilt and isolate themselves from family and friends (Dos Santos). HIV has truly impacted Africans in many ways and is a serious problem that needs to be dealt with.