Replication of HIV and The Denialists

Today students learned about how HIV replicates using host DNA and the structure of virus. Students watch an animation and took notes using a graphic organizer.

E long block started to read the article The Denialists which was published in The New Yorker in the March 12th edition. Below is an excerpt from the article, to read more click here.

ANNALS OF SCIENCE about the AIDS denial movement in South Africa. Zeblon Gwala is a 50-year-old South African who sells ubhejane, an untested herbal remedy he claims will cure AIDS. On a typical day, as many as 100 people come to his clinic. Ubhejane has been endorsed by South African President Thabo Mbeki’s health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and by Herbert Vilakazi, the head of Mbeki’s Presidential Task Team on African Traditional Medicine. Vilakaze believes that the toxicity of antiretroviral drugs, or ARVs-the only successful treatment for millions infected with H.I.V.-causes more harm than good. Like Mbeki himself, he’s convinced that a cure for AIDS is more likely to be found in traditional African medicine rather than Western pharmaceuticals. AIDS denial plays a corrosive role in the health policies of many countries, but South Africa provides the most extreme and enduring example. Five and a half million of the country’s 48 million people are infected by H.I.V.