The Politics of Uncertainty: The AIDS Debate, Thabo Mbeki and the South African Government Response

Rijn, Kiran van

doi:10.1093/shm/hkl077

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Russo suggests this as a possible interpretation when she states that: B[D]isease causation may be properly described by the mono-causal or the multi-causal model, but that depends on the disease at hand…^ (2011,(75)(76). This position is also implied by Mosley (2004) and Van Rijn (2006) in the literature on Mbeki's denialism.…”

Section: ) Different Accounts For Different Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 67%

Mono-Causal and Multi-Causal Theories of Disease: How to Think Virally and Socially about the Aetiology of AIDS

Furman

2017

J Med Humanit

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In this paper, I utilise the tools of analytic philosophy to amalgamate mono-causal and multi-causal theories of disease. My aim is to better integrate viral and socio-economic explanations of AIDS in particular, and to consider how the perceived divide between monocausal and multi-causal theories played a role in the tragedy of AIDS denialism in South Africa in the early 2000s. Currently, there is conceptual ambiguity surrounding the relationship between mono-causal and multi-causal theories in biomedicine and epidemiology. Monocausal theories focus on single, typically microbial, sources of illness and are most concerned with infectious diseases. By contrast, multi-causal theories allow for multiple factors to underpin a disease's aetiology, including socio-economic and behavioural factors, and they usually focus on chronic non-communicable diseases. However, if these theories are taken to be strictly distinct, this prevents the inclusion of both microbial and socio-economic factors in a single explanation of any particular disease. This strict distinction became a problem when trying to explain the disproportionate prevalence of AIDS in southern Africa and ultimately contributed to the tragedy of AIDS denialism in South Africa. In tandem with viewing how the perceived divide between multi-causal and mono-causal theories underpinned AIDS denialism, I examine Thabo Mbeki's specific role, while acknowledging that AIDS is being deprioritised on a broader international level. Overall, I will demonstrate that any long-term plan to eliminate AIDS will require viral and socio-economic factors to be considered simultaneously and that such a theoretical approach requires a clearer understanding of the underlying concepts of disease aetiology.

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Section: ) Different Accounts For Different Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 67%

Mono-Causal and Multi-Causal Theories of Disease: How to Think Virally and Socially about the Aetiology of AIDS

Furman

2017

J Med Humanit

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“…Duesberg and Mullis were outsiders to AIDS research on either answer. See van Rijn (2006). conference cannot achieve (C), because the evidence is still too contentious for (C) to be reached.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three Criteria for Consensus Conferences

Stegenga

2014

Found Sci

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Consensus conferences are social techniques which involve bringing together a group of scientific experts, and sometimes also non-experts, in order to increase the public role in science and related policy, to amalgamate diverse and often contradictory evidence for a hypothesis of interest, and to achieve scientific consensus or at least the appearance of consensus among scientists. For consensus conferences that set out to amalgamate evidence, I propose three desiderata: Inclusivity (the consideration of all available evidence), Constraint (the achievement of some agreement of intersubjective assessments of the hypothesis of interest), and Evidential Complexity (the evaluation of available evidence based on a plurality of relevant evidential criteria). Two examples suggest that consensus conferences can readily satisfy Inclusivity and Evidential Complexity, but consensus conferences do not as easily satisfy Constraint. I end by discussing the relation between social inclusivity and the three desiderata.

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“…Mbeki’s views may also be read as an attempt to provide an alternative framework for understanding the HIV/AIDS crisis (Geshekter, 2007). ‘Mbeki’s public remarks, in essence, can be interpreted as seeking to promote an understanding of AIDS in Africa in terms of epidemiology, rather than virology’ (van Rijn, 2006: 521). His controversial views, according to van Rijn, were aimed at redirecting attention focused on the causal link between HIV and AIDS to a broader discussion of factors that underlie the spread of disease in Africa.…”

Section: Understanding the African Aids Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

HIV/AIDS and discourses of denial in sub-Saharan Africa: An Afro-optimist response?

Mulwo

Tomaselli

Francis

2012

International Journal of Cultural Studies

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This article re-examines HIV/AIDs discourses within the global imagining of Africa. It focuses on official responses which, between 1999 and 2007, were characterized by denialism, when South African President Thabo Mbeki, questioned the origin of the disease. The historical factors that shaped arguments locating African AIDS discourses as a counter-ideological response to Afro-pessimism are examined. It is argued that the controversy generated by debates on the origin and spread of HIV/AIDS, the denial of the link between HIV and AIDS, and the resistance against the roll-out of antiretroviral therapy, was a contestation especially of the Euro-American image of Africa, rather than of the epidemic itself.

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The Politics of Uncertainty: The AIDS Debate, Thabo Mbeki and the South African Government Response

Cited by 9 publications

References 21 publications

Mono-Causal and Multi-Causal Theories of Disease: How to Think Virally and Socially about the Aetiology of AIDS

Mono-Causal and Multi-Causal Theories of Disease: How to Think Virally and Socially about the Aetiology of AIDS

Three Criteria for Consensus Conferences

HIV/AIDS and discourses of denial in sub-Saharan Africa: An Afro-optimist response?

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