SOC 240  Social Problems  Spring 2001  Brewer

Discussion and homework questions for week 10

For each reading assignment, please write a paragraph in response to those questions with an asterisk (*). Turn in your paragraph at the beginning of class on the day we discuss that reading assignment. Your homework should be typed or legibly handwritten. Make sure you put your name, date, course number, and the reading assignment on your homework. Each assignment is due at the beginning of class.
 

Due: Wednesday, April 11

"Born in Africa: Philly Lutaya" film

1. Could any Ugandan AIDS victim have spoken out in the way Lutaya did and had the same impact?  Why or why not?  Was there anything special about Lutaya and his campaign?  Explain.

2. Why was the government of Uganda reluctant to have the Lutaya documentary filmed?

3. Describe Ugandans' reactions to persons with AIDS.  How do these compare with reactions observed in other countries, such as the U.S.?  What evolutionary basis might there be for people to react in these ways?

4. How did persons with AIDS respond to their disease?  What did they tend to do upon getting sick with AIDS?

*5. How do women's mating preferences (especially young women's) make them vulnerable to HIV infection?  What role do men's mating preferences have to do with young women's vulnerability to infection?

Schoofs

1. Apart from killing many people, what are the other consequences of the HIV epidemic on African societies?  What is happening now and is likely to occur in the future?

2. Why might some African AIDS activists oppose relatively inexpensive treatment regimens that would reduce the risk an infected pregnant woman transmits HIV to her baby?

3. Contrast Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's response to the HIV epidemic and his own infection with Philly Lutaya's.  Who do you think had a larger impact, or could have had a larger impact on preventing the spread of HIV?

*4. In terms of HIV prevention efforts, what obstacle does Nigeria face that Uganda no longer does?

5. If the ultimate reservoir for HIV and related viruses is in chimpanzees, monkeys, and other nonhuman primates, how did/do these viruses become human infections?

6. Why didn't the HIV-2, subtype F variant in Sierra Leone take off into an epidemic?  Why didn't the HIV-1, subtype O infected Norwegian spark an epidemic?