The North-South Divide

I feel that the North-South divide is the source of a huge disparity for STDs/AIDS. As we've seen in class, equatorial Africa and South East Asia are always the areas with high prevalence for the disease we're looking at. As Americans, I think we don't really appreciate what we have. We have the resources to provide healthcare - maybe not for all, but for most - and we have funding for disease prevention and research. And I think we take this for granted. I know that if I ever got an STD, it wouldn't be a problem for me to just make a doctor's appointment, get a diagnosis, and get treatment (if possible). But this becomes much more difficult in less developed countries where a lot of people don't have doctors and hospitals in their small town; where treatment, and even education are much harder to come by. Personally, I think Americans who have never been to a third world country or bothered to learn what we are learning in class are blind to how much more difficult disease prevention and treatment is in equatorial Africa and SE Asia. That is why there exists a north-south divide - because maybe we don't really realize there is a divide in the first plalce... Maybe ignorance isn't bliss...