GEOGRAPHIC VARIABILITY OF HIV-INFECTION AND AIDS IN THE SOUTH SAHARA

The geography of HIV infection in Africa (which is the continent with the highest incidence rates) has varied features at each scale. The transmission is oriented preferentially according to axes and poles where the virus-because of local environmental factors-found favorable conditions to dissemination and spread. The dynamic of the epidemic results from factors related to sociologic, cultural, religious behaviour and to geographical, political and economic situations. The local combination of all the causal factors explains the complexity and diversity of the geographic characteristics of the African epidemic. The knowledge of the causal factors calls upon various disciplines. Spatial networks, population movements and their consequences are analyzed. Geographical data together with sero-epidemiologic information initiate hypothesises related to the spatial dynamic of the epidemic and to the processes of regionalisation.