African
Populations And AIDS
African
Populations And AIDS
Aids appears to be holding medical science in check in its favoured field: infectious diseases, the very one that, ever since Pasteur, had seen countless successesturning into triumphs. But the "enigma" is not a purely biological one, the human and social sciences are equally implicated: why is it that Aids is more rampant in Africa than elsewhere? To what extent is the disease dependent on certain patterns of social and psychological behaviour? What could the consequences be -in demographics, economic and political terms- for the future of the people of Africa?
In the face of such questioning the tendency has sometimes been to grossly oversimplify. Hence the urgent need for a work of clarification. Such is the object of this book which adopts a multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of Aids. François Chieze, in the first chapter, reminds us of the truly biological pattern of infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Bertran Auvert explains how the epidemic developed in Africa and reached such alarming proportions -71% of declared cases of Aids can be estimated to occur in Africa where more than 6 million adult Africans are infected, representing about 2.5% of the overall population (Chap 2). Chapter 3, by Nicolas Brouard, will provide the reader with an understanding of the mainspring of the Aids epidemic as it occurs in Africa and reviews its demographic consequences. Lastly, in chapter 4, Jean-Pierre Dozon and Agnès Guillaume reflect on possible socio-economic consequences for the African continent.
This tightly structured book, of high scientific tenor, brings together a wide range of data (including some as yet unpublished) and, with the help of very clear graphs and tables, provides an up-to-the-minute picture of Aids and opens up numerous avenues for thought.
ISBN 2-7071-2384-6 Price : 149FFPrinted in September 1994
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