New important AIDS book
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AIDS: In search of a social solution
Publishers: TWN, Peoples' Health Movement
Produced by Third World Resurgence
154 Pages
Price: Third World - US$10.00; First World: US$14.00 (Prices are
inclusive of postage cost by air mail.)
Two decades after HIV/AIDS was discovered, it continues to
spread across continents, infecting and killing millions and de-
stroying 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 worst-
affected 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 se-
curity, depressing national economies, and rolling back the de-
velopment gains of the last thirty or more years, as the African
experience has shown, especially in the worst-affected coun-
tries.
The fact that the disease strikes the most active and productive
groups in a society, i.e. persons between the ages of 15-45
years, is a threat to human capital, the functioning of social
institutions and social stability.
In Africa, young people and children not only bear the burden of
the disease, many have lost parents and family members to
HIV/AIDS. More than half of the HIV/AIDS sufferers are women, a
reflection of their unequal and oppressed status in society
wherein their sexual and reproductive health rights are denied.
Underlining the pandemic in which women figure disproportion-
ately is the fact that HIV/AIDS thrives in and reinforces condi-
tions 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 eco-
nomic crises and exacerbated the vulnerability of populations to
death and diseases including HIV/AIDS.
This concept of health, in which the root causes of ill health
are not found in the diseases themselves but are embedded in the
social and economic conditions prevailing in society, was recog-
nised in the Alma Ata Declaration. In 1978, governments of the
world had committed to achieving Health for All by the year
2000, and Primary Health Care (PHC) was identified as the key to
achieving it. In the PHC vision, health cannot be separated from
social justice if Health for All is to be achieved.
Hence, combating social inequalities within a country and be-
tween 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 unac-
ceptable.
This document is a joint effort of the Third World Network and
the People's Health Movement. We hope that the articles and per-
spectives in this book can be a useful source for campaign and
advocacy.
For more information mailto:twn@igc.apc.org