Poverty: Africa has experienced great social instability and poverty throughout most of its history. As AIDS continues to spread though much of Africa, the disease continues to wipe out the poor and the rich, and the young and the old, leaving behind destroyed families and few skilled workers which only adds to Africa's social instability. As the economic and political crisis in most of Africa's nations intensifies, unemployment skyrockets. When jobs are cut, women are usually the first ones fired. Without jobs women have no money, thus they have to look for other means of supporting their family. Since there are very few ways of for women to make money, many of them turn or are forced to turn to exchanging sex for money as a last resort. Although poor women are usually aware of AIDS, they have no other alternative for earning money in order to survive. Thus, what is seen as means of survival (sleeping with multiple partners) is, in reality, a means of an untimely death because of the high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. Poverty also means that there is little or no funding for supporting the health care programs in Africa. As more and more people fall ill, fewer and fewer people are left to take care of them. Since there is currently no money available for health care or treatment, there is certainly no money available for testing and creating vaccines to curb the spread of AIDS in Africa.

Values of Procreation: In Africa fertility is seen as demonstrating the masculinity and manliness of men, as well as proving the significance of women as good wives. Because procreation is highly valued in African society, both men and women are refusing to use condoms. Even though condoms are successful in preventing the spread of AIDS, they also prevent reproduction. Thus, many individuals are willing to risk contracting AIDS and have unprotected sex because fertility is so important to social status.

Myths: Myths influence the spread of HIV/AIDS in many ways. One strong belief held by a number of Africans is that the West wants to control the population growth of Africa, and that the West is trying to do this by convincing Africans to use condoms. The West is encouraging African nations to use condoms as protection against AIDS, but many Africans believe that this is just a ploy to curb reproduction rates. Many Christians in Africa believe that God is using AIDS as a weapon to punish sinners. Since AIDS is often associated with promiscuity, many followers believe that God will protect the innocent spouse from contracting AIDS, but use AIDS to punish the spouse that was involved in sexual practices outside of her/his marriage. Two other popular myths are that some Africans believe that regular infusions of sperm is required if a woman is to grow up to be beautiful, and that sleeping with a virgin will rid an infected person from the disease. (Caroline Bledsoe, The Politics of AIDS, Condoms, and Heterosexual Relations in Africa: Recent Evidence from the Local Print Media)

Poor Health: Poor health is very common among many Africans and is a major factor in the fight against AIDS. Many sexually active people in Africa have at least one sexually transmitted infection (STI). STIs are not only dangerous themselves, but they also increase the risk of HIV transmission. A majority of STIs result in open sores which means that it is easy for these areas to be infected by other diseases. Sores, on or near sexual organs, can easily be contaminated by sperm or vaginal fluid carrying the HIV virus. Poor health in Africa is a result of poor health care. As long as there is no available treatment for STIs the spread of AIDS will continue to spread at uncontrollable rates.

Long Latency Period: There is a long latency period between infection and the full blown disease which makes it is hard for many laypeople to understand that AIDS can be spread by healthy-looking people. Because AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease and sexual behavior is very important in African society, it is more difficult to convince people that sex can in fact be harmful to one's health, even when they are engaging in activity with healthy-looking partners. A long latency period also means that many people are unaware that they are carrying the virus, and therefore these people often spread the disease unknowingly to other victims which in turn infect still others.