The Rise of HIV in Africa
The purpose of this research paper is to identify and discuss the problems that plague Africa. They are much the same as those that plague any industrialized society: poverty, crime, need for educational standards and rising health concerns, including the spread of HIV/AIDS. The challenge of unification goes somewhat beyond the issues faced as an industrialized society and into historical conflict and economic patterns. This research paper looks at the virus and a range of methods already used to try and slow down transmission rates and argues that that measures which look only to cure and resolve HIV alone are bound to fail as they do not tackle the root causes of the spread of the virus. The only way to eradicate HIV is to deal with the environment issues that make its spread possible.
HIV infection rates in South Africa's townships are among the highest in the world. Hundreds of people contract HIV every day in South Africa, most of them in the poor, often dangerous township communities of crowded tin and concrete shacks. By now, nearly everyone in South Africa knows how HIV is transmitted, and how to avoid it. The enduring mystery is why so many people do not.
(Epstein, 2003)
South Africa has the highest number of people estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS in the world and is one of the countries hardest hit by the epidemic. The percentage of people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa is much higher than that of the sub-Saharan African region overall, and although prevalence rates have begun to stabilize, the South African Government’s most recent surveillance study indicates that prevalence may still be on the rise.
The first case of HIV/AIDS in South Africa was reported in 1982. It is thought that the first case of HIV in South Africa was in a white, homosexual air steward from the USA who died of pneumonia (PCP). Blood specimens showed a 16 per cent infection rate among tested gay men in Johannesburg in 1983....