ABSTRACT
The Acquired immune Deficency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic in Africa, first reported in 1983 among patients from Central Africa who sought medical care in European centers, has reached major proportions. Early in the epidemic, investigators working in Africa noted that AIDS was occurring about as often in women as in men. The heterosexual transmission of AIDS in Africa poses a frightening specter to the West. Although heterosexual transmission had been identified in North America prior to the description of AIDS in Africa, the number of such cases was small and, though growing, remains small. The path of the AIDS epidemic among both women and men in Africa cannot be understood apart from the realities of commerce and civil strife. Data suggest that the epidemic first became established in the central African countries of Zaire, Ruwanda, and Burundi. Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 after a long and bitter war against the settler regime that left at least 20,000 dead.
