Notes on the socio-economic and cultural factors influencing the transmission of HIV in Botswana

Botswana currently has one of the highest recorded incidences of HIV infection in Africa although AIDS was only first publicly recognized in 1985. By this time other countries in the region such as Malawi, Zambia and Uganda were already showing signs of epidemic levels of HIV. The rapid transmission of HIV in Botswana has been due to three main factors; the position of women in society, particularly their lack of power in negotiating sexual relationships: cultural attitudes to fertility; and social migration patterns. These three factors along with other, arguably more minor, ones have been shaped and mediated within the specific context of Botswanaʹs rapid socio-economic development and cultural milieu. This has resulted in a constellation of factors unique to Botswana which accounts for the current high seroprevalence rate in the country.