South Africa's Complex AIDS Crisis
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
In some South African villages, antiretroviral drugs for AIDS are widely available, but electricity and running water are not. Journalist Jonny Steinberg writes about the complexities of the AIDS crisis in his home country of South Africa in his new book, Sizwe's Test.
Guests:
Jonny Steinberg
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Comments [3]
Dear Leonard,
I didn't have time to respond earlier today but my comment is similar to Preston's only more emphatic.
Over 40,000 new US cases every year for over a decade, and the numbers are rising in recent years. How could this happen if there weren't stigma? I provide mental health counseling for people with HIV disease who live in Brooklyn. Stigma is strong, stigma is real. I have plenty of details if you want to know.
What really concerns me when you make a comment like that is that it appears you are commenting on a narrow "bandwidth" of experience regarding stigma and HIV. Your listening area is bigger than this bandwidth.
Your comment that there is no stigma attached to AIDS in the U.S. versus 15-20 years ago is a bit of an exaggeration. Perhaps the stigma isn't as strong as it was then or similar to what exists in SA. Nevertheless, there still an association among many that the disease is the result of a gay lifestyle, being black, being a drug abuser, promiscuous.... in particular outside large urban areas.
I saw the documentary Rx For Survival and saw that there are certain sex workers in Africa who seem to not contract the HIV virus in spite of having unprotected sex with many HIV positive partners. Do you know anything about this and is research being to recreate this immunity in other people?
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