Baltimore Sun Examines Senegal’s Successes, Challenges in Fight Against HIV/AIDS

The Baltimore Sun on Sunday profiled Senegal's success in its fight against HIV/AIDS and the challenges it faces as a result of the country's relatively low HIV prevalence. Senegal "demonstrates how swift government action and an openness about the epidemic can curb its growth," according to the Sun. Senegal's HIV prevalence is about 1%, compared with approximately 39% in the Southern African nations of Botswana and Swaziland. Although all segments of Senegalese society -- including the country's Muslim leaders -- helped to contain HIV/AIDS "early on" in the epidemic, "the torrent of AIDS billboards and advertisements that once overwhelmed residents with warnings about the virus has subsided" and "[m]any residents no longer consider AIDS a threat," the Sun reports. Senegal residents' current "ignorance" about HIV/AIDS is "evidence of [the country's] success in curbing infections, as well as an alarming harbinger of how easily those gains might erode," according to the Sun (Murphy, Baltimore Sun, 5/23).