How apartheid predisposed Blacks to HIV infection and AIDS in South Africa.

Abstract

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107 p.

This dissertation used a historical comparative analysis to establish a link between apartheid and the spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. It shows that racist policies predisposed blacks to conditions that increased their vulnerability to infectious diseases that present as opportunistic infections in HIV-positive people.The time periods selected for the study were 1969--1979 and 1989--1999. The official South African health statistics and notification data show that the rates of curable yet infectious diseases were higher during the first time period (1969--1979) for blacks than for any other race group and the trend remained the same after 20 years in the second period (1989--1999). A myriad of racist policies and restrictive laws denied black people decent wages, quality of life, and access to adequate health care.The study pursues the argument that AIDS intervention programs that are based on the biological model of viewing disease are inappropriate because they are not based on the social reality of blacks and their history of dispossession in South Africa. Instead, they serve to condemn individuals and thereby exacerbate the stigma associated with HIV infection.The study found that apartheid's racist policies of migrant labor, mass removals and forced relocations impoverished Africans and exposed them to conditions that made them susceptible to communicable diseases that present as opportunistic infections in HIV-positive individuals. The study concludes that in South Africa measures to combat HIV infection and AIDS deaths, need to incorporate strategies that address the legacy of apartheid.