In Africa sex education is culturally, religiously and politically an issue which is not always open to discussion. In sub-Saharan Africa, as in many countries in the industrialised world and elsewhere, people embark on their sexual lives when they are in their teens. Different cultures have different ways of understanding and explaining the concept of disease, and this has great impact on the possibilities for disease prevention. Many myths exist about transmission routes of HIV, and people lack the knowledge to protect themselves, their sexual partners as well as their children. One of the causes of this high prevalence is that women of reproductive age get more injections and invasive examinations than other demographic groups.
Pregnant women lose some of their immunity.
They are more viable to encounter malaria which in itself can cause malaria related anemia that requires life-saving transfusions. In any given country, one year of basic medical treatment for one person costs about two to three times the national GDP per person. It is clear from this that the problems of AIDS in the developing world is not going to be solved through the use of antiretroviral drug therapy. Therefore, the sydrom remains an acute disease, whereas in the developed countries it is now more a chronic condition, thanks to drug therapy. Developing countries urgently need an AIDS vaccine.