spirit and healing in africa - University of the Free State

abstinence (in relation to adolescents) and fidelity (in relation to married couples). This kind of
construction on AIDS as a moral consequence has led to the centralization of moral sexual
behavior. The one who abstains from sexual intercourse or the one who is faithful to the spouse,
has the status of someone who is healthy and safe. Being safe and being saved are closely related
matters, and sometimes they even share exactly the same meaning. Well-being, salvation and
quality of spiritual life are intricately connected with quality of physical life.
4.5 CONCLUSIONS
The discourse on HIV/AIDS in Africa is a vast field that covers all sorts of efforts to address the
AIDS pandemic in Africa. From within various disciplines, the existence and the threat of
HIV/AIDS are being reflected upon, and many responses are being articulated in order to halt the
spread of the virus. Together these actions and reflections can be divided into two different
categories that determine the whole discourse on HIV/AIDS in Africa. The biomedical approach
remains the dominant frame of reference, because it provided the foundation for people’s
understanding of HIV/AIDS, while the etiology of HIV/AIDS, the medical treatment of HIVinfected
patients and the epidemiological perspective on prevention, established the idea that
HIV/AIDS was largely a matter for biomedical experts. Since the beginning of the new
millennium a second approach started to emerge. The ‘beyond epidemiology’ approach
countered the dominant way of understanding HIV/AIDS by emphasizing the social aspects of
the AIDS pandemic. ‘Beyond epidemiology’ adherents assert that HIV/AIDS should not be seen
as a matter for biomedical experts, but rather as something that touches the whole of society, and
first and foremost people living with HIV/AIDS. The two approaches do not come together in a
natural way, but they do complement each other. The one approach needs the other in order to be
relevant. This insight caused a shift of balance within the HIV/AIDS discourse in the sense that
disciplines other than biomedicine offer contributions that are of relevance in the fight against
the virus. One of the most important insights produced by social science is the idea that the
biomedical definition of HIV/AIDS is just one of the many understandings of HIV/AIDS. The
biomedical construction is fundamental to the explanation of epidemiological consequences of
HIV/AIDS, but the normativity of biomedical AIDS-constructions is no longer taken for granted,
and other kinds of constructions have started to have an impact on the discourse on HIV/AIDS in
Africa.
Biomedical constructions of AIDS start with the virus that can be contracted through blood
contact and sexual intercourse. From there, the focus is on human behavior as the most important
host factor that can be controlled in order to stop the spreading of the virus. Subsequently, the
identification of people who are at a high risk of contracting the virus due to their sexual
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