Spring Break
Uncovering the AIDS controversy in Africa
Luci Storelli-Castro
Issue date: 4/22/08 Section: Opinion
Dear Mates,
Before coming to Ghana, I was unaware that there was such a thing as an "AIDS controversy."
My limited knowledge on the subject of AIDS and its transmission could be collapsed into three general premises: 1. AIDS, a terminal disease characterized by a general breakdown of the immune system, has become a rampant epidemic; 2. AIDS is sexually transmitted; 3. AIDS is most prevalent in Africa due to a lack of safe sex practices.
So, naturally, when I was first exposed to ideas that the AIDS epidemic has been blown out of proportion, that its link with sex is questionable, and that poverty more than promiscuity has exacerbated AIDS in Africa, I was a little taken aback. In fact, I was tempted to disregard these controversial claims as a well cooked up conspiracy theory.
However, the problem is that even the most far-fetched conspiracy theories can turn out to be true.
Recall the days leading up to the Iraq invasion: Anti-war protestors were deemed conspiracy theorists and terrorist-loving hippies for entertaining thoughts that the war was more about oil than weapons of mass destruction. Fast forward to reports of soldiers being given orders to secure oil fields before weapons warehouses and suddenly it seems like the kooky liberals were on to something.
The same holds true for the AIDS controversy -- the more I dissected the subject, the more I started to suspect the validity in conventional thinking about the disease.
Take the notion that AIDS is an out-of-control epidemic. The World Health Organization in Geneva is responsible for recording all registered AIDS cases worldwide. In its calculations, the WHO recognizes that an unknown percentage of AIDS patients will be unaccounted for, therefore, they multiply cases in order to reach a more accurate number.
The multiplication figure, however, increases arbitrarily each year. In 1996, for instance, the WHO multiplied the number of registered AIDS cases in Africa by 12, in 1997 by 17, and 1998 by 47.
Before coming to Ghana, I was unaware that there was such a thing as an "AIDS controversy."
My limited knowledge on the subject of AIDS and its transmission could be collapsed into three general premises: 1. AIDS, a terminal disease characterized by a general breakdown of the immune system, has become a rampant epidemic; 2. AIDS is sexually transmitted; 3. AIDS is most prevalent in Africa due to a lack of safe sex practices.
So, naturally, when I was first exposed to ideas that the AIDS epidemic has been blown out of proportion, that its link with sex is questionable, and that poverty more than promiscuity has exacerbated AIDS in Africa, I was a little taken aback. In fact, I was tempted to disregard these controversial claims as a well cooked up conspiracy theory.
However, the problem is that even the most far-fetched conspiracy theories can turn out to be true.
Recall the days leading up to the Iraq invasion: Anti-war protestors were deemed conspiracy theorists and terrorist-loving hippies for entertaining thoughts that the war was more about oil than weapons of mass destruction. Fast forward to reports of soldiers being given orders to secure oil fields before weapons warehouses and suddenly it seems like the kooky liberals were on to something.
The same holds true for the AIDS controversy -- the more I dissected the subject, the more I started to suspect the validity in conventional thinking about the disease.
Take the notion that AIDS is an out-of-control epidemic. The World Health Organization in Geneva is responsible for recording all registered AIDS cases worldwide. In its calculations, the WHO recognizes that an unknown percentage of AIDS patients will be unaccounted for, therefore, they multiply cases in order to reach a more accurate number.
The multiplication figure, however, increases arbitrarily each year. In 1996, for instance, the WHO multiplied the number of registered AIDS cases in Africa by 12, in 1997 by 17, and 1998 by 47.
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