AIDS: In search of a social solution
Two decades after HIV/AIDS was discovered, it continues to spread across continents, infecting and killing millions and destroying entire communities. Sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for 11 percent of the total world population, has 70 percent of all HIV/AIDS infections in the world, making it the worstaffected continent.
Although one may dispute the alarming figures, the fact remains that HIV/AIDS has had devastating consequences for countries, societies, families and individuals. It is a global crisis and the outlook is worsening, with India, China and Russia projected to be the next centres of the pandemic.
HIV/AIDS attacks every sector of the society, affecting food security, depressing national economies, and rolling back the development gains of the last thirty or more years, as the African experience has shown, especially in the worst-affected countries.
Underlining the pandemic in which women figure disproportionately is the fact that HIV/AIDS thrives in and reinforces conditions of deprivation, poverty, oppression, conflicts, social violence, and social collapse. Thus HIV/AIDS has to be tackled from a social and economic perspective, taking into account the global structures and forces that have led to social and economic crises and exacerbated the vulnerability of populations to death and diseases including HIV/AIDS.
Combating social inequalities within a country and between countries is fundamental to Health for All. This means challenging the power structures and policies that engender ill health, be they governments, the World Bank-IMF, unequal trade agreements, structural adjustment policies, corporate-driven privatisation or free-market fundamentalism, all of which have severely affected public health systems particularly in the Third World.
It is within this context that the HIV/AIDS catastrophe has to be considered. HIV/AIDS cannot be tackled with technocentric and medical solutions alone. HIV/AIDS requires an integrated social, economic and political response, where health is recognised as a fundamental human right and health inequities are simply unacceptable.
This document is a joint effort of the Third World Network and the People's Health Movement. It is hoped that the articles and perspectives in the book can be a useful source for campaign and advocacy.
Produced by Third World Resurgence
154 Pages
Price: Third World - US$10.00; First World: US$14.00 (Prices are
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