of the disease is sub-Saharan Africa. There, a 15-year-old boy or girl faces a 50–50
chance that he or she will contract HIV/AIDS.
One reason for the dramatic shift from the developed to the developing world has
to do with global poverty. Medical breakthroughs since the 1990s transformed the dis-
ease from an almost universal likelihood of death to a chronic disease that can be man-
aged with a combination of drug therapies. These drug therapies were enormously costly
to develop and are enormously costly to purchase. Only those who are wealthy enough
or who have excellent health care coverage can afford the “AIDS drug cocktail”—which
can cost more than $2,000 a month. In poorer countries, virtually no one can afford
these drugs, and the governments do not have enough money to pay for them.
In addition, campaigns to raise public awareness of HIV risks in the developed
world have led to dramatic changes in behavior among gay men and IV drug users.
Young people today are urged to practice “safe sex”—which means that during sex-
ual activity, one should not exchange any bodily fluids (a condom prevents the
exchange of fluids)—and IV drug users are cautioned to avoid sharing needles and to
clean their needles with bleach solution to kill any potential infectants. The gay com-
munity’s active mobilization around the AIDS epidemic led to a dramatic transforma-
tion of gay male sexuality and the development of institutions that promoted safe sex.
In the developing world, however, the transmission of the disease is different, and
often cultural and religious beliefs have made campaigns to reduce risk difficult. Some
people in Africa believe that HIV is a Western “import” and infects only gay men.
Some men in southern African have begun to seek out young girls who are virgins as
sex partners, on the assumption that they could not possibly be infected with the
disease. As a result, many young girls are becoming infected because the men were
HIV-positive and did not know.
HEALTHY BODIES, SICK BODIES 5453,200,000–4,000,0000–800,000
800,000–1,600,000
1,600,000–2,400,000
2,400,000–3,200,0004,000,000–4,800,000
4,800,000–5,600,000
No dataFIGURE 16.4 Adults Living with HIV/AIDS (Aged 15 and over),
Source:Global Data, 2006; Country Data 2005 from The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, http://www.globalhealthfacts.org., 2007. Reprinted with permission.