It's due to a bunch of reasons. First of all, not everyone in Africa understands the concept of "disease," since many places still practice animism and believe that diseases are inflictions from evil spirits or punishments from the spirits for wrongdoing. Because of this, not everyone understands how diseases are spread, prevented, or treated. After all, if you believe that you have a festering sore on your leg because you haven't made a sacrifice to the Spirit of the Cashew Tree yet, then you aren't going to believe someone who hands you an antibiotic and a glass of water.
Second, sex education is poor in a lot of African countries. Only a small percentage of the population realizes that diseases like AIDS are spread through sexual intercourse, and a lot of people don't know about condoms, or don't trust them over traditional birth-control practices, like chewing on a mildly poisonous root or having a shaman spit in mud and rub it on your stomach, or something. Some of the more developed nations like Nigeria and Ghana are really emphasizing the use of condoms, but the problem is that the literacy rates in African countries are usually below 30%, so people have to be told individually about disease prevention and sexual safety because they can't read about it in the paper or in school.
To my knowledge, there isn't a biological reason why AIDS is so common in Africa, but I might be wrong about that. I know that many African peoples have a biological susceptibility to sickle-cell anemia, but I can't remember if there's any susceptibility towards HIV/AIDS.
Second, sex education is poor in a lot of African countries. Only a small percentage of the population realizes that diseases like AIDS are spread through sexual intercourse, and a lot of people don't know about condoms, or don't trust them over traditional birth-control practices, like chewing on a mildly poisonous root or having a shaman spit in mud and rub it on your stomach, or something. Some of the more developed nations like Nigeria and Ghana are really emphasizing the use of condoms, but the problem is that the literacy rates in African countries are usually below 30%, so people have to be told individually about disease prevention and sexual safety because they can't read about it in the paper or in school.
To my knowledge, there isn't a biological reason why AIDS is so common in Africa, but I might be wrong about that. I know that many African peoples have a biological susceptibility to sickle-cell anemia, but I can't remember if there's any susceptibility towards HIV/AIDS.
