Aids in Africa
Introduction

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IPOAA Magazine presents the eight part, year 2000 Pulitzer Prize winning series Aids - The Agony of Africa written by Mark Schoofs. The series originally appeared in the Village Voice and it is reproduced with their permission.

 

As the death toll from AIDS recedes in America, Africa is reeling from an epidemic of Biblical proportions. South of the Sahara, AIDS is worse than anywhere else in the world, and this catastrophe is transforming the continent forever.

This series explores AIDS in Africa. Based on hundreds of interviews conducted in nine countries over six months, the series covers the social, biological, and human ramifications of HIV: the deadly consequences of denial, the heroic response of some African communities, the origin and future of HIV, the corrosive effects of racism and colonialism, the role of women in the spread and prevention of HIV, the grim options for treatment, and the hope for a vaccine.

In this pandemic, no nation is an island. AIDS has already fueled a global resurgence of tuberculosis, and by weakening the body's ability to fend off pathogens, HIV gives new and emerging microbes a golden opportunity to adapt to the human species. AIDS has not yet run its course.