Skip Navigation


Social History of Medicine Advance Access originally published online on October 31, 2006
Social History of Medicine 2006 19(3):521-538; doi:10.1093/shm/hkl077
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
19/3/521    most recent
hkl077v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by van Rijn, K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Social History of Medicine. All rights reserved

The Politics of Uncertainty: The AIDS Debate, Thabo Mbeki and the South African Government Response

Kiran van Rijn {dagger}


  Abstract

Shortly after becoming President of South Africa in 1999, Thabo Mbeki began to seek non-mainstream advice about his nation's AIDS epidemic; a number of those consulted were outspoken in denying the causal link between HIV and AIDS. In response to Mbeki's actions, over 5,000 scientists signed the ‘Durban Declaration’, which declared HIV to be the cause of AIDS, and which appeared in Nature shortly before the thirteenth AIDS conference, held in Durban, South Africa, in July 2000. The government position and strategy were not completely resolved until July 2002, when the Constitutional Court effectively compelled the government to provide anti-retroviral medication to all HIV-infected pregnant women. Mbeki's public remarks, in essence, can be interpreted as seeking to promote an understanding of AIDS in Africa in terms of epidemiology, rather than virology. Throughout this episode, different interpretations of AIDS served to advance different moral and political courses of action. The ability of medical science to compel political action depended on whether that science was understood to be conclusive or uncertain, objective or value-laden, disinterested or tied to vested interests. Mbeki (along with AIDS sceptics) tested conventional AIDS science for these qualities. By examining the politics of uncertainty, we learn about the politics that sustain certainty.

Keywords: HIV-AIDS; Thabo Mbeki; South Africa; Durban Declaration; politics; uncertainty; dissident; epidemiology; virus; science


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.