by Keiron Audain

Created on: July 04, 2008   Last Updated: September 25, 2009

It has been stated that HIV/AIDS does not discriminate against its victims, but with current statistics putting African people at the frontline of this biological war, that statement may need to be revisited.

The last 20 years has seen AIDS transform from a gay related disease to an African epidemic. A survey conducted in 1999 showed that out of 480,000 AIDS related child deaths (less than 15 years of age), 430,000 were from Sub-Saharan Africa, with less than 100 deaths coming from Western Europe and the United States. Today, it is estimated that there are over 40 million people infected with AIDS globally, with more than 25 million victims from Sub-Saharan Africa alone. It is estimated that 19 million children in Africa will be orphaned by 2010 as a result of this grossly uneven epidemic.

HIV was first reported in 1981, as a rare immunodeficiency disease located in 5 homosexual men from California. At the time, several theorists claimed the disease originated out of Haiti, and came to the U.S via Haitian immigrants illegally or otherwise entering the country. With little knowledge of its causative agent, and with no known cure, many accusations were made, and blame was being cast from all sides.

Two years after this initial finding, 5 cases of HIV/AIDS infections were reported in Central Africa, and according to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) Africans officially became a risk group for the disease, along with Haitians, injection-drug users and prisoners.

However, although this may have been the first reported case of AIDS in Africa, the disease may have been present on the continent many years earlier. Harvard graduate Dr. Leonard Horowitz has published numerous articles and texts claiming that AIDS was first introduced into the continent by a contaminated Hepatitis B vaccine that was widely distributed throughout villages in Central Africa. Scientific experts are currently looking into this, and other similar theories, which were previously dismissed. As seen in the case involving five Bulgarian nurses operating in Libya, who are currently facing the death penalty, with the charge of infecting 430 children with AIDS, (out of which 50 has died) has shown us that the concept that Dr. Horowitz deals with is not a totally alien one.

Putting theories and popular belief aside, HIV/AIDS is a major problem affecting the world's poorest countries, with 95% of cases being reported in countries that do not have the resources to tackle this epidemic, mainly Africa,

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>