#TIPHChat Question 2

[Emily]

Pisani brings up a few controversial topics including the claim that HIV/AIDS is spread through poverty and underdevelopment rather than sexual behavior. Do you agree? Disagree?

[Wendy]

Pisani made a compelling argument that African leaders need to talk openly about the sexual habits of their constituents and the ways in which those habits may be spreading disease. Misinformation campaigns and denial seem to be extremely harmful.

[Jite]

I think Pisani’s argument going against the conventional wisdom of AIDs being a disease of poverty and underdevelopment is quite an interesting one. The evidence she presents to support her argument is quite compelling. And indeed, I agree that whilst poverty and underdevelopment may create and support an enabling environment for AIDS to spread, it’s a bit euphemistic to blame those socioeconomic factors as being to blame for the AIDS epidemic. And I’m being euphemistic because basically blaming those factors is a cop out, frankly. I think one would be hard pressed to find an epidemic that doesn’t thrive in conditions of underdevelopment and poverty. I don’t dissociate AIDS from wealth and development as harshly as Pisani does, but I agree with her point that as long as we focus on these more abstract, bigger picture, hard-to-address, but more palatable interventions (i.e. developing and enriching whole nations and I’ll add facetiously, securing world peace) that distract from addressing the actual behaviors that are resulting in the disease, then we’re fooling ourselves about how we’re addressing the root causes.