Elizabeth Pisani is unlikely to make many friends in SA — especially among those in the Aids establishment. This former journalist-turned-Aids-epidemiologist has just written a book with a catchy title of The Wisdom of Whores that deals head-on with the Aids crisis and pulls no punches; she is on a warpath against the Aids industry, including those NGOs that profit from the misery.
But it’s her full-frontal views on Aids in Africa that really grabs your full attention. In a piece she wrote recently in the London Times about her book, Pisani says: “HIV is largely a sexually transmitted infection, so there must be something different about sex in Africa. Yet you can’t say that without appearing to be racist. So campaigners have come up with other reasons that HIV is worse in Africa: poverty, ignorance, men having more power than women. All politically correct, but not epidemiologically correct.
“The truth is that a society in which many people have two or three partners on the go at any one time will produce a bigger epidemic than a society where people may have 10 partners in five years, but only one at a time. And it’s a fact that in parts of Africa, it’s more common for both men and women to have two or three simultaneous relationships than to have serial partners. Do people behave in this way because they are poor and ignorant? Not in Bangladesh, or Bolivia, or dozens of other countries where incomes and literacy are low. Indeed, in Africa, the incidence of HIV infection is highest in the richest households and the richest countries.”
In case there is any uncertainty here, let’s restate exactly what Pisani is saying: multiple concurrent sexual partners (aka promiscuity) causes Aids epidemics. The rest is bullshit.
I sent Pisani an email asking her some questions about her book (which I have not read), and though she promised to answer she never did. I wanted to know, for example, how her research squared with the selenium theory: in countries like Senegal with promiscuity high but HIV low, there has been some fascinating research into the selenium levels of the soil which, some argue, is a key to mobilising the body’s defence against HIV infection (selenium levels in southern Africa are particularly low).
If the selenium theory stands up, then Pisani’s argument must stand down — at least a bit.
PS: In case you are fearful of being accused of Aids denialism, please be advised it is safe to read these articles, as long as you do so one at a time in the privacy of your own home.
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