The paper “AIDS, Inc.” written by Dr. Helen Epstein was a really interesting read. Not only did I learn about the aids epidemic happening across the country, but I also learned about how awareness is effectively and ineffectively spread. In South Africa in the early 2000’s the aids epidemic was at an all time high. The government did not help to try and solve this problem, and they kept ignoring the fast spreading problem.

One way people tried to resolve the problem was through a company called loveLife. This group was an HIV prevention campaign. The goal of this group was to do better than campaigns that had failed in the past, and avoid dealing with the PR problems that come with the controversy of AIDS treatment and care. This campaign generated many ideas on how to connect with the youth. loveLife wanted to relate/get the attention of youth while still teaching them preventive actions to avoid the transfer of diseases. Unfortunately, the campaign fell short, and there was one main reason why.

Epstein was skeptical about the lack of real person examples of how the sexually transmitted disease affects lives. She states her skepticism “Could this work? … Was it possible to reduce the spread of HIV without involving HIV-positive people and the activists and community groups that supported them?” Epstein is showing her concern, because she thinks that real life examples of how the disease affects lives would help people be more careful instead of the sugarcoating that loveLife did. This reminds me of Anne Hallward’s Ted Talk over telling shameful stories. This paper really did prove Hallward’s idea about how telling shameful stories can lead to global change.

Dr Epstein met with a school in Rwanda, where the HIV infection rate had dropped significantly. All schools were given government issued manuals to educate students on the infection. The government did not try to ignore or brush off the problem like South Africa. Instead the government was tackling the problem head on. Yet again this idea of not shying away from shameful stories or topics goes back to Hallward. By showing kids the true effects that the HIV infection has on families and people in general is takes away the stigma, and just focuses on how people can resolve this epidemic.