Although over 20% of South Africans aged 15 - 49 are infected with HIV, fewer than a fifth have been tested for HIV. Media reports suggest that there is widespread misinformation amongst the South African population about HIV, including popular belief in conspiracy theories, for example that the apartheid-era South African government manufactured HIV as a way of controlling the black population.
The behaviour of both pre- and post-majority rule administrations has provided some foundation for such beliefs, with the New York Times reporting in 2001 that the apartheid government had tried to develop biological weapons using a range of bacteria and viruses, including HIV. Furthermore, the Mbeki administration was sympathetic to theories that HIV was not the cause of AIDS.
Comment: In the same breath, we can read an example of a conspiracy and a claim that beliefs in such theories is an example of misinformation.
Belief in conspiracy theories about HIV have been shown to be associated with lower levels of condom use amongst African-American men. But there has been no research examining an association between such beliefs and HIV risk behaviours in South Africa.
Investigators therefore designed a study involving 503 men and 438 women who were recruited from sexual health clinics in three townships. They completed a questionnaire about their HIV testing history and attitudes and beliefs towards and about HIV. One of the questions asked individuals to agree or disagree with a statement that AIDS was introduced by white people as a way to control black Africans.
Almost all (94%) the study sample were black Africans. The investigators found that a high proportion of the study sample had been tested for HIV (68%), with 24% of the tested individuals being HIV-positive.
The investigator's first set of statistical analysis showed that individuals who had not tested for HIV had lower levels of knowledge about HIV and also had more stigmatising views about the virus (p < 0.05). The only belief about HIV that was associated with lower levels of testing was the belief in a conspiracy theory that HIV was created by white people to control the black population.
In subsequent analysis that controlled for possible confounding factors such as demographics, HIV knowledge and stigma, only age (p < 0.05) and a belief in conspiracy theories (p < 0.01) remained associated with lower levels of HIV testing.
"Our results suggest that genocidal HIV beliefs undermine public support for government-sponsored HIV-related programs and individuals' participation in such programmes", write the investigators.
Reference
Bogart LM et al. Endorsement of genocidal HIV conspiracy as a barrier to HIV testing in South Africa. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 49: 115 - 116, 2008.
belief in 'hiv' testing is in and of itself, a sign-of-the-times: it is straight from the 'aids' (so-called) zone. 'conspiracy' theories? www.healaids.com belief in 'hiv' is in and of itself a product of 'science by political proclamation', the endless repeating of a lie, as in other 'conspiracies' such as the official versions of the taking out of jfk, rfk, jfk jr., mlk, malcolm x, paul wellstone, john lennon, etc., etc., and all of the other 'events' such as 9-11, 7-7, blah blah. anything other than the official brainwash mind control version is deemed a 'conspiracy theory.' that lable in and of itself is enough to give cause for pause: a red flag for the false flag, in this case the "'hiv' = 'aids'" phenomenon. fake science, global hype, deception, hoax, lie, whatever....=.... sells pharmaceuticals, feeds the sick-to-death
industry, keeps people in fear, looking in the wrong directions regarding how to remain/become healthy. population control for some means the reduction of same by several billion, and the 'aids' game is an amazingly effective example of how control of the media furthers the agenda of duping the dumbed-down to death. 9-11 gatekeeper (along with amy goodman, noam chompsky, etc.) gary null www.garynull.com has done some excellent work, beginning back in the early 1980's when ronald reagan's secretary of health announced that the 'probable cause' had been found, beginning the endless 'aids'-babble: pandemic, death sentence, 'hiv' test, etc., etc.