HIV/Aids poverty link challenged

The belief that HIV/Aids is predominantly a disease of the world's poorest people is being increasingly challenged by experts in the field, one expert has suggested.

There is a rise in the view that the spread of the disease is not primarily attributable to conditions of poverty, as a number of international organisations would argue, says Curtis Abraham in an article for the East African.

Among the theories being challenged is the notion that being poor and unable to feed themselves of their families leads women to becoming sex workers, which thereby increases their risk of exposure.

However, Dr James Chin – a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and author of the recent book The Aids Pandemic: The collision of epidemiology with political correctness – says that statistics do not back up the view that HIV/Aids is fuelled by poverty.

According to the East Africa, Dr Chin claimed: "This litany used by UNAids and most Aids programmes is socially and politically correct but there are no epidemiological data to support this myth or misconception about HIV transmission"