Stasi & AIDS in Africa – an Unlikely Connection
(2019) In International Journal of AIDS 1(1). p.15-19- Abstract
- Our contemporary time is haunted by fabricated stories or so called “fake news”. Some of them are threatening the long-term work to promote health carried out by bodies, such as the WHO. The origin of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) being a contamination and a mutation originating from primates is well-documented. Despite this well documented fact, alternative narratives are often being heard of, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This article demonstrates how a story about HIV/AIDS as man-made in a military laboratory in the United States was part of an ideological warfare to discredit the enemy.
One such narrative was constructed by the intelligence services in East Germany (German Democratic Republic – GDR) as part of the Cold... (More) - Our contemporary time is haunted by fabricated stories or so called “fake news”. Some of them are threatening the long-term work to promote health carried out by bodies, such as the WHO. The origin of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) being a contamination and a mutation originating from primates is well-documented. Despite this well documented fact, alternative narratives are often being heard of, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.
This article demonstrates how a story about HIV/AIDS as man-made in a military laboratory in the United States was part of an ideological warfare to discredit the enemy.
One such narrative was constructed by the intelligence services in East Germany (German Democratic Republic – GDR) as part of the Cold War. In this article, it is shown how this narrative was created and disseminated. The enemy is gone a long time ago. Still the false narrative prevails, possibly as part of another ideological power game to portrait the other as causing everything bad and thus, easing pressure on political leaders in the South to support necessary preventive actions to diminish HIV.
The purpose of this article is to put an end to a long-lasting conspiracy theory, which is still alive and partly preventing effective measures of healing. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/619b3a13-15b5-4a6e-817c-ad6c2fb9572a
- author
- Jeppsson, Anders LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- International Journal of AIDS
- volume
- 1
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 15 - 19
- ISSN
- 2644-3023
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 619b3a13-15b5-4a6e-817c-ad6c2fb9572a
- alternative location
- https://www.scitcentral.com/article.php?journal=24&article=372&article_title=Stasi%20&%20AIDS%20in%20Africa%20%E2%80%93%20an%20Unlikely%20Connection#tabs2
- date added to LUP
- 2020-01-02 10:03:55
- date last changed
- 2020-01-02 10:03:55
@article{619b3a13-15b5-4a6e-817c-ad6c2fb9572a,
abstract = {{Our contemporary time is haunted by fabricated stories or so called “fake news”. Some of them are threatening the long-term work to promote health carried out by bodies, such as the WHO. The origin of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) being a contamination and a mutation originating from primates is well-documented. Despite this well documented fact, alternative narratives are often being heard of, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.<br/>This article demonstrates how a story about HIV/AIDS as man-made in a military laboratory in the United States was part of an ideological warfare to discredit the enemy.<br/>One such narrative was constructed by the intelligence services in East Germany (German Democratic Republic – GDR) as part of the Cold War. In this article, it is shown how this narrative was created and disseminated. The enemy is gone a long time ago. Still the false narrative prevails, possibly as part of another ideological power game to portrait the other as causing everything bad and thus, easing pressure on political leaders in the South to support necessary preventive actions to diminish HIV.<br/>The purpose of this article is to put an end to a long-lasting conspiracy theory, which is still alive and partly preventing effective measures of healing.}},
author = {{Jeppsson, Anders}},
issn = {{2644-3023}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{15--19}},
series = {{International Journal of AIDS}},
title = {{Stasi & AIDS in Africa – an Unlikely Connection}},
url = {{https://www.scitcentral.com/article.php?journal=24&article=372&article_title=Stasi%20&%20AIDS%20in%20Africa%20%E2%80%93%20an%20Unlikely%20Connection#tabs2}},
volume = {{1}},
year = {{2019}},
}