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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The HIV/AIDS expansion and colonial legacy in sub-Saharan Africa
Author:Bakayev, Valeri V.ISNI
Year:2006
Periodical:African Anthropologist (ISSN 1024-0969)
Volume:13
Issue:1-2
Pages:77-90
Language:English
Geographic term:Subsaharan Africa
Subjects:AIDS
colonial history
Abstract:The severe impact of HIV/AIDS on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the notorious disproportion in its prevalence among individual countries and regions may have a rational explanation in the direct risk factors and patterns of transmission associated with certain sociocultural determinants, including urbanization, labour migration, etc. This article examines the assumption that the world's highest prevalence rates and a certain similarity in the patterns of HIV infection in southern and southeastern Africa could be explained by reference to their shared colonial legacy. Of the forty SSA countries studied, the former British colonies show higher socioeconomic growth and living standards, as well as significantly higher HIV rates among the high and low-risk populations, than the other former colonies. In a multivariate analysis adjusting for biomedical, socioeconomic, and cultural factors such as disease transmission, premarital fertility rate, urban-to-rural population ratio, female adult literacy rate, per capita purchasing power, and Muslim percentage, the authors observe that colonial roots appear among the significant predictor variables. They conclude that considering the immediate risk factors of HIV in their postcolonial context could help to achieve a better understanding of the roots of the epidemic and more efficient targeting of AIDS control programmes. Bibliogr., sum. in English and French [Journal abstract]
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