Why are more people living with HIV|AIDS in Africa than any else in the wlord?

A very complicated answer indeed. Here are a few of my thoughts on why we still have such a problem in Africa with HIV/AIDS

1) Lack of education- We aren't really trying. In many parts of this continent, many of the people still do not even know what HIV is, let alone how to protect themselves.

2) Ignorance of the church and government- The vatican is using its autority in this part of the world to condemn the use of contraception and have been preaching how if the people would just abstain from premarital sex, they wouldnt have this problem. Come on. Get over yourselves and tell these people they can use condoms to safe their lives.

3) Western world just doesn't care about anyone but themselves- Granted we do have some great people and some great organizations, but the average north american doesnt give a ****. They are more concerned about the 100 American soldiers that died in Iraq in a year (Random number, just for comparison purposes)than they are the millions that die in Africa from a preventable disease. This is sick.


there are tons of other reasons of course, and one could even argue that this is America's way of destroying this part of the world, which is why they have chosen to ignore every plight of the African people and concentrate only on vanquishing the next enemy to the american way of life.

basically there goverment does not give two sh*ts about them. all the help comes from outside.

its a poor nation, they do not have money to buy food..so how can they buy condoms or anyother precaution. plus they do not have proper education system.and aids are multiplying there at a very fast pace.

This is a complicated matter to answer, but I'll try to be brief and still cover the bases. First of all, the largest problem by far is the simple lack of good information in Africa when it comes to AIDS and other STD's. Most of the beliefs and traditions are rooted in long time word of mouth beliefs which take quite a bit to change. Even when people are given the right material, sometimes change is hard. Secondly, the cultural aspect of things play a huge role as well. Women are seen more as possesions and things to be conquered than equals like in much of the civilized world today. Because of that, many women are simply taken advantage of, and many times by more than one man at a time. Thirdly, is that sex is an outlet for much of the youth in Africa and it is seen as an expression of their independance. The temptation to have sex is just as strong if not stronger due to cultural aspects we don't have in america, and because of the social structure, much easier to do at younger ages. You combine this with a general lack of proper knowledge about how deadly AIDS is and you can begin to get a small picture of what is going on in Africa that would lead to this epidemic. My fear in being this short is that many people will read into this more than is really here. Some of my best friends are from Africa and I have had the opportunity to hear and experience much of what I am saying first hand. The wisest saying I've heard goes something like; "The greatest treasure one can have or ever give is simply knowledge."

I agree with chadamog that this is a complicated matter. Lack of education, poor medical facilities, lack of HIV / AIDS awareness, and many more.

probably coz they dont have the resources to treat it!
and their not taught skills on how to prevent spreading it like we are, no health promotion, education or awareness!

i beleive some diseases spread depending on the socioeconomic status of a region so the poverty in africa only worsens the spread think of a lady no money to even feed herself next option sell her body in the process gets aids a woman married to a man whose cheating on her but bcoz she has no financial empowerment she sits there and is brought for aids and has no say when it comes to using protection etc

I would think unprotected sex

All of the above answers are typical of people that have never been to Afirca or know absolutely jackcrap about the science of HIV. The actual answer to your question lies in the very way its defined depending on location. See, in the west and Europe, HIV infection is diagnosed based on surrogate markers - typically immunoglobulin assays - to detect antibodies thought to be specific to HIV which ARENT even FDA approved to diagnose an actual HIV infection. Yeah read the FDA approval. None are actually approved to diagnose a person to HAVE the actual virus. Every one of them state they are to "aid" in the diagnosis or -better yet- state there no standand for diagnosing an actual infection. To "confirm" the result, another immunoglobulin assay is used. Even more confirmation is made with viral load. Of course with all these tests and their flaws, they do a good job at tagging males, junkies ,homosexuals, and blacks in which account for some 90+% of the cases according to the CDC (1). Now in Africa, they do **NOT** test the *VAST* majority and never did. The estimation is based on whats known as the Bangui Definition (2). As you can read for yourself, the main part of it states--

"It was developed to provide surveiling case definition of AIDS for use in countries where testing for HIV antibodies was not available."

UNAIDS doesnt even hide the fact that they do not test the vast majority in Africa (or anywhere on earth with a purported deadly epidemic for that matter) (3)

"Methods and assumptions for estimates

In countries with a generalized epidemic, national estimates of HIV prevalence are based on data generated by surveillance systems that focus on pregnant women who attend a selected number of sentinel antenatal clinics, and in an increasing number of countries on nationally representative serosurveys. This data is entered into the Estimation and Projection Package (EPP) software which fits a simple epidemiological model to find the best fitting curve that describes the evolution of adult HIV prevalence over time, and calibrates that curve to the prevalence found in the national survey. This adult prevalence curve, along with national population estimates and epidemiological assumptions, is then entered into the Spectrum software program to calculate the number of people infected, new infections and deaths."

So we have a handful of pregnant women tested and the data fed into a computer which is extrapolated accross entire countries. Hmmmm not exactly accurate.


Now in the US, we have awareness websites that demonstrate exactly how the US and Africa differ in interpretation. (4)


"Q. How does a person know if he/she is infected with HIV?

A. The only way to know your HIV status for sure is to be tested. Immediately after infection, some people may develop mild, temporary flu-like symptoms or persistent swollen glands, but even if you look and feel healthy, you may be infected. The only way to determine for sure whether you are infected is to be tested for HIV infection. You cannot rely on symptoms to know whether or not you are infected with HIV.

Q. Can you tell whether someone has HIV or AIDS?

A. You cannot tell by looking at someone whether he or she is infected with HIV or has AIDS. An infected person can appear completely healthy. But anyone infected with HIV can infect other people, even if no symptoms are present."


Hmmm so in the US, you must test to know your status but in Africa, you can just look at someone and tell. Hmmm yeah.... that logic is amazing. You have the same old diseases killing people like they always did (malaria, tuberculosis, dengue fever, starvation, parasites, poor sanitation to name a few) yet under the Bangui definition, many of these old diseases fit right in with the criteria for a diagnosis of AIDS. Without proper HIV testing (which is an oxymoron in and of itself) NO ONE knows what the real score is. African AIDS exists to feed western hysteria over an epidemic that never happened to keep the fear alive.

To answer you question in short, because they make the numbers up.


Seriously, who ever thumbed me down, follow this link. http://www.unaids.org/en/HIV_data/Method...

It clearly states how the numbers are done. The posters question was "why are more people living with HIV|AIDS in Africa than any else in the wlord? "

You may not like my answer but it doesnt change the reality of it. All you morality paladins get off the steed. Theres a reason why the numbers are so high in Africa and I promise you it isnt because poor stupid Africans have too much risky sex like the west seems to think.

No TV.

Poverty, lack of education and ignorance.

I am afraid it is due to their multi-partner sexual practises. The heavy use of prostitutes by African males and their failure to agree to use condoms. Also some of the male leaders of African countries refuse to accept that HIV is spread sexually and there are often no safe sex or condom campaigns.

bob b.... brilliant answer! Everyone else, dont get too comfortable, watch this space!!!!!!!!!!!!

cos they shag monkeys

they really dont have as much protection down there.

because thats where scientists believe it originated

They dont have the contraception or the sexual education that we have here and so it just gets passed on and passed on including of course to any children that may result from the sexual activity.

Because the Virus was manufactured to Target them.