Fred de Sam Lazaro of Twin Cities Public Television reports. Richard Holbrooke on the international response to the AIDS epidemic. Yet this West African nation has found ways to stave off the HIV scourge. In this sketch, Mustafa marries his late brother's wife. In Senegal's polygamous society, men often marry their brother's widow or widows.
Experts also cite a number of religious and cultural influences, as well as government programs.
Even though the government spends barely a dollar per person each year in public health, this former French colony had health screening programs in place before AIDS arrived. Targeting the commercial sex trade Perhaps most importantly, they targeted the commercial sex trade, traditionally the epicenter of an HIV outbreak. In a program that started way back in 1969 to control sexually transmitted diseases, Senegal began requiring its commercial sex workers, or prostitutes, to register in places like the polyclinic here in Dakar, and to come in for regular medical check ups. That program is now key to monitoring the spread of HIV in the country. About one thousand women are registered at this clinic in the capital, Dakar.