Not quite. I grew up in Southern Africa where HIV/AIDS is still a massive problem today, and it was an equal opportunity disease unlike how it was in the West w

Not quite. I grew up in Southern Africa where HIV/AIDS is still a massive problem today, and it was an equal opportunity disease unlike how it was in the West where mostly gay men were affected to my knowledge. Sobering statistics include that according to a UNAIDS dataset sourced from the World Bank, in 2019, the HIV prevalence rate for adults aged 15 to 49 was 37% in Eswatini (Swaziland), 25% in Lesotho, 25% in Botswana and 19% in South Africa. I know for a fact that in some South African provinces, this rate is substantially higher, and only increases further when you take into account racial demographics (HIV/AIDS is largely isolated to Black Africans, and is virtually absent from White, Middle Eastern, Coloured, East Asian, and Indian communities). Take for instance, KwaZulu Natal, where much of my extended family fled to after being unceremoniously booted out of Zimbabwe. The official rate is around 27%, but is likely underreported due to stigma, and furthermore increases when you consider it as a percentage of the Black African population living there (50%). If half of a given racial demographic lives with HIV/AIDS, you could hardly say that HIV/AIDS only affects gay people. Furthermore, the explosion of the HIV/AIDS epidemic was exacerbated by a former South African president by the name of Thabo Mbeki, who more or less adopted a policy of denial and herbal remedy. I would probably put the fundamental blame down though to promiscuity, lack of education, rape (Southern Africa is by far the world's dangerous region for women and boasts the highest rape rates in the world by quite a margin), and superstition (it's a common belief in Black African slums and communities that raping a teen virgin will cure oneself of the disease and rid them of bad spirits that cause it). HIV/AIDS is a well-known societal issue in Southern Africa, and it is more or less drilled into the minds of everyone about the risks of contraction and the like. I am however, white, and of English descent. A Black African for instance would likely have a much more personal story about how HIV/AIDS destroys lives within the slums. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_South_Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_South_Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_denialism_in_South_Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_denialism_in_South_Af...