AIDS from Africa: A Case of Racism Vs. Science?

Abstract

Western scientists have promoted the hypothesis that AIDS originated in Africa. The scientific evidence in support of this notion includes AIDS-like cases from Africa which predate the epidemic in the West seroepidemiological evidence for early African infection and the isolation from African monkeys of retroviruses considered similar to HIV. However upon close examination such literature is found to be either contradictory insubstantial or unsound. No one has seriously explored whether AIDS was introduced to Africa from the West. The belief that the AIDS epidemic originated in Africa has also distorted Western perceptions of the scale and mode of the epidemics spread in Africa. It would appear that much research into AIDS has been influenced by racism rather than by science. The ideology of racism and racism with regard to the hypothesis that AIDS originated in Africa are discussed through a review of the relevant literature.