Biomedical loopholes, distrusted state, and the politics of HIV/AIDS ‘cure’ in Nigeria.

As socio-medical phenomena, epidemics are revealing of the cultures in which they are experienced. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa exposes antecedent tensions between state and society, and, on a broader canvas, between the global north and south. As a contribution to the emerging literature on the social ramifications of HIV/AIDS, this article examines the saga of the Nigerian physician and immunologist, Dr Jeremiah Abalaka, who like other innovators in sub-Saharan Africa claims to have developed a curative HIV vaccine. Whilst articulating the social conditions that enabled Abalaka to thrive, the article explores the marked differences in the reaction to his ‘discovery’ among state representatives, the scientific establishment, the general public, people living with HIV, and the media. Finally, the article valorizes the emergence of new actors in the African health sector, and the diversity of strategies used by ordinary people to achieve and maintain wellness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]