Before medicine became revolutionized and there were break throughs for certain diseases and how to treat them, AIDS was an extremely controversial disease. People were not positive about how the disease came about and often would shut out people who embodied the disease. Cultures and geography also played a role in the spread and controversy of AIDS. People from different places around the world viewed and dealt with the disease differently in many aspects. For example, in “AIDS, Inc.,” Helen Epstein discusses how AIDS/HIV were a rising problem in places around the world such as Uganda and South Africa. She also goes into detail about the programs that were offered and brought up the concern that real circumstances in people’s lives were not getting brought up by these programs. She presents her point by stating, “A more realistic HIV prevention program would have paid less attention to aspirations and dreams unattainable for so many young people, and greater attention to the real circumstances in people’s lives that make it hard for them to avoid infection” (119). Epstein reveals the problem behind a program that does not use real life circumstances or people’s life stories. People do not take situations as literal unless they hear that someone has lived through it themselves. A small program called “Inkanyezi” was more successful than a big program with more money called “LoveLife” because of their approach. AIDS was more controversial before medicine was revolutionized and it was dependent on the geographic variables and the programs that were surrounding them. AIDS can still be a controversial topic but more is known about it and people are more cautious and most have resources to prevent/help with it.
