According to UNAIDS, HIV/AIDS is the single greatest threat to Zimbabwe’s future. With an adult infection rate of 33.7% (World Health Organization, 2001), Zimbabwe has been described as ‘the epicenter of hell’ (LaMonica & Marash, 2000). Researchers have demonstrated that, today, there are high levels of knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS. However, in the case of Zimbabwe, despite this knowledge, AIDS statistics continue to rise. Even though AIDS awareness is high, the prevalent sexual behaviors still foster on-going HIV transmission . Through focus group discussions with adult Zimbabweans, the present study attempted to identify reasons for this discrepancy. Results indicate high levels of knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention. Results also reveal some sociocultural practices (e.g., polygyny, widow inheritance,and traditional healers) as agents in HIV transmission. Several barriers to healthy behavior were also identified. Lastly, results show that while urban Zimbabweans are receiving valuable information regarding HIV/AIDS from the mass media, the general attitude toward selected media messages was that they were not effective. To illustrate, participants indicated that messages accounted for little of their HIV/AIDS information, were disseminating information that viewers already had, were not describing HIV/AIDS or being explicit about the causes and the effects of HIV/AIDS infection., and were presenting only superficial information at best and misleading information at worst.
Results of this study are valuable because they show that sociocultural issues warrant examination as agents in HIV transmission. Further, media messages need to address, rather than ignore, sociocultural issues and practices that play a role in HIV transmissions.