AIDS, Africa And Racism

In 1982 shortly after the severity of the AIDS outbreak in the U.S. became apparent researchers hypothesized on the basis of several possible AIDS cases among Haitians resident in the U.S. that the disease had originated in Haiti. When this theory was no longer tenable and evidence showed clearly that the disease had migrated to Haiti by way of homosexual American tourists the search for the origin of the disease turned to Africa and the alleged AIDS epidemic sweeping through the central portion of the continent. The authors of the present study evaluate the medical and journalistic literature supporting such claims. They argue that to "prove" that AIDS appeared in central Africa before it appeared in the U.S. patients in Africa with wasting diseases were retrospectively diagnosed as having had AIDS without substantial evidence. The results of HIV tests on Africans were published as if they were facts even when it was apparent that a great number of false positive readings were associated with various other infectious diseases particularly malaria. Additional "proof" was provided by unreliable tests conducted on 25-year-old blood samples. The authors conclude that given the racist attitudes of western researchers and writers it was almost inevitable that a new and deadly sexually transmitted disease would be attributed to black people whatever the evidence.