East Africa has suffered some of the highest HIV and AIDS infection rates since the disease was first discovered in the early 1980s. Since its discovery, up until a survey in 2006, it is estimated that HIV/AIDS claimed the lives of 25 million people worldwide.
Different strains of the virus are identified around the world but their effects on the human body are largely the same no matter which strain you might be infected with. It is the social causes of infection that vary greatly and are the concern of my examination of HIV/AIDS around the world.
India attributes its battle against HIV/AIDS to wide spread poverty, lack of education, and a large population of sex workers and migrant communities. The Western world considers the disease to have originated among the homosexual community. In the U.S.A. the African American community are now a dominant demographic along side homosexual males.
East Africa’s high infection rates were initially attributed to their culture of polygamous relationships, poverty and lack of education. The practice of having several sexual partners created large networks of people that allowed the disease to travel quickly. Such practices are still seen in Kenyan culture but are becoming increasingly rare.
After decades of education and public health programs, and billions of dollars in investment, some progress has been made is educating the urban and rural populations of Kenya, but the infection is still being spread.
So as Kenya is still battling the spread of the infection at epidemic levels, have the right tactics been adopted when spending the vast quantity of support received from the global community? My time in Kenya was spent meeting and speaking with many of the people of one of Kenya’s poorest areas, Kilifi District. They shared their experiences of HIV and their thoughts about how to eradicate HIV/AIDS from their communities.
Many thanks to all of the men, women and children that were involved.
