Abstracts

82 Introduction In the late 1980s, seemingly healthy men and women began dying from preventable diseases when their destroyed immune systems could not be helped by typical treatments. Diagnosis rates of tuberculosis and pneumonia increased as research slowly found the cause of the immune deficiency and catapulted the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic into the global spotlight (Getahun et al., 2010). With the first cases developing in marginalized and underrepresented populations, the world largely ignored the disease. This neglect resulted in a distinct lack of funding and research until large populations were afflicted, public figures came forth to confess their own HIV status, and stricken individuals began to support each other. Unfortunately, the research and the treatments developed in the 1980s were not available in the South African public health system until 2003 and remained inaccessible to many impoverished and rural populations (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2019). In South Africa, the epidemic began in the middle of apartheid, with the first confirmed deaths from AIDS occurring in 1985 (South Africa History Online [SAHO], 2011). The cultural conditions of the time, including poverty, lack of education, and poor medical services, created barriers to treatment access, which allowed disease to spread through vulnerable populations. Inaccessible health care and the cost of treatment, both in time and money, have resulted in over 7.7 million people, or 14% of South Africans, infected and living with HIV (UNAIDS, 2019). South Africa’s epidemic is the fourth worst HIV epidemic in the world, closely following its neighboring countries of Botswana (#3), Lesotho (#2), and Swaziland (#1) (Central Intelligence Agency, 2016). Currently, only 4.8 million people— less than 65% of those infected—are receiving treatment for HIV due to the seemingly insurmountable barriers to health care. With HIV AND AIDS IN SOUTH AFRICA: EMPOWERING INDIVIDUALS TO MAKE WIDESPREAD CHANGE Ariel Pawlo For over three decades, the HIV and AIDS epidemic has been ravaging South Africa with only limited success in controlling the spread of the virus. Pre-exposure prophylaxis provides a novel opportunity simultaneously to progress toward the end of the epidemic and to empower marginalized groups by giving them more control over their health. This medication will serve a dual purpose by protecting individuals and beginning to unravel the sociocultural forces that allowed the epidemic to flourish at its onset. Perspectives on Business and Economics, Vol. 38, 2020