AFRICA

...It's so ironic: Africa is a continent full of resources and full of poverty!...

The knowledge we have of Africa is limitaded for our mediocrity, we think of Africa as the poorest continent, full of problems, full of hunger, full of violence but we never think of it as a beautiful, incredible, full of resources and richness continent where people are forgotten and exploted.

Africa is composed by 54 states and has more than 2000 ethnic groups what means that has the most important cultural development in the world; people have different ideologies and beliefs but share the same country and even the same city. The presentation in class talked about many important topics like the fact that Africa is the most multilingual continent in the world and the languages that are spoken include european languages that in some countries are learned because once they were colony of any european country, also the slavery that is incredible that it is still used nowadays in some countries, they also teached us about the quantity of resources that make them a very rich region in the world but also one of the most troubled one (conflict f the diamonds), also they talked about the main facts of the region like the climate that varies from country to country where we can find huge desserts and thick jungles and reinforest regions.

Question: Why is HIV more widespread in Africa than elsewhere in the world, and why are some parts of Africa affected more than others?

No-one really knows the full answer to this question. However we do know there are many factors that influence the rate at which HIV is transmitted.5 6 Such factors include poverty; economic disparity; social instability; gender inequality; sexual violence; other sexually transmitted infections (which facilitate HIV transmission); lack of male circumcision; high mobility; rapid urbanisation and modernisation; and ineffective leadership during critical periods in the epidemic’s spread. Some scientists believe that differences between HIV subtypes have an effect on transmission rates. There is also some evidence that genetic factors and parasitic worm infections (common in sub-Saharan Africa) may make a contribution.

People in sub-Saharan Africa don't have many more lifetime partners than people in other parts of the world. However, researchers have found that in some areas it is not uncommon for people to have two or more regular sex partners at the same time. Someone is most likely to transmit HIV during the period shortly after they are infected, when they have very high levels of virus in their body. Therefore someone who has two or more concurrent partners is more likely to transfer HIV between their partners than someone who has a series of monogamous relationships. This too may help to explain why HIV is more widespread in Africa.

Taken from: http://www.avert.org

"Acute Schistosoma mansoni Infection Increases Susceptibility to Systemic SHIV Clade C Infection in Rhesus Macaques after Mucosal Virus Exposure", Chenine et al, PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 2(7), 23rd July 2008
"Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines mediates trans-infection of HIV-1 from red blood cells to target cells and affects HIV-AIDS susceptibility", He et al, Cell Host Microbe 4(1), 17th July 2008
"Brief but efficient: acute HIV infection and the sexual transmission of HIV", Pilcher et al, J Infect Dis 189(10), May 2004
"Concurrent sexual partnership help to explain Africa's high HIV prevalence: implications for prevention", Halperin and Epstein, The Lancet 364(9428), July 2004