AIDS in Namibia

The purpose of this article is to examine the AIDS epidemic in Namibia, a country for which little data currently exists. An examination of published and unpublished literature about the historical, socioeconomic and health factors as well as an analysis of updated data from other sub Saharan countries presented at the IXth International Conference on AIDS in Berlin may shed light on the pandemic as it relates to Namibia. Despite inadequate data, it is clear that the AIDS epidemic has already reached Namibia, though the country has not been afflicted as severely as some of its neighbors. Because of 75 years of apartheid, the new government is faced with a formidable array of problems, both in health care and in the economic domain. The strategies being adopted to confront the AIDS epidemic will take years to evolve, a period of time the nation can ill-afford if it is to wrest control over a virus that is relentlessly spreading into susceptible populations.