Underlying this approach is a notion of racial difference, based not on scientific study but on racialised arguments that treat the African as possessing distinct sexual qualities; hyper-sexualised and promiscuous. The racialised arguments do not though explain the fact that mainly black Cuba has an incidence rate that is 1000^th that of Botswana, or why epidemics of other sexually transmitted conditions like Chlamydia, Herpes or teen pregnancies exist in the West.

It also does not explain why African AIDS is not gay like it in the West. With regard to this, the ideas of Thabo Mbeki dismissed as belonging to fringe lunacy beg several questions that the governing narrative fails to answer. There are clearly other factors at play, like with other diseases. Foremost among these, are poverty, endemic malnutrition, poor sanitary and sewage conditions, poor access to healthcare and medicines, which powerful factors are often ignored.

The fact that these environmental conditions are pervasive in communities that are highly susceptible to HIV shows a greater significance than any imagined correlation between sexual behaviour and race.

Caricatures of South Africa's Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the stance of her government's insistence on nutrition are common place in discussions of HIV. What these caricatures do not capture of her views, is that while it is important to insist that AIDS is not a nutritional condition, nutrition is clearly an important factor in the health of populations affected by HIV. The massive drop in food production in Africa due to extreme weather conditions (droughts and floods) resulted in a collapse in incomes and migrations to the city as subsistence farming became undependable. Set alongside the collapse in overall spending on health programs this drop in calorie and protein intake led to a plunge in overall immunity. It is also important to remember that unlike temperate zones, tropical Africa is already ridden with parasites and other disease causing organisms. Nutritional and health care deficiencies work hand in hand to make the body more susceptible to infection. For example, Vitamin A deficiency renders skin and mucous membranes weaker and more open to the breakage that allows viral entry.

Parasite infestation on the other hand, worsens immunity both as the body is depleted of energy in fighting infections off and also as it results in an almost chronic triggering of the immune system. At the same time self-treating and skimping on medical treatment lead to an underlying presence of untreated ailments like genital ulcers further easing infection.

The danger in presenting HIV/AIDS as a behavioral phenomenon is clearest in the fact that it takes attention from the reality that most sexual encounters are either unplanned or experienced in the absence of complete mental awareness. It also discounts the fact that sexual intercourse has a thrill factor attached to it which is obstructed by the use of condoms.

Pushing condom use and abstinence as the mainstay of prevention strategy seems foolish considering also that many sexual encounters involve powerless parties or lovers persuaded to trust ‘I am clean' or the fact that HIV test are not 100% foolproof.

More effective would be a campaign to improve overall healthcare and nutrition across Africa especially among those most enervated by unemployment, rural urban migration, prostitution as a sole source of income, malaria, pneumonia or tuberculosis.