Ethical, methodological and political issues of AIDS research in Central Africa.

AIDS represents research challenges for anthropology as well as for biomedicine. In many ways the dilemmas of anthropologists appear to be of lesser magnitude than those confronting biomedical researchers charged with the responsibility for treating patients and searching for cures and vaccines. Yet anthropological research is both politically sensitive and policy-relevant. Ethical practice in anthropology is linked to questions of methodology and theory which this article explores based on the author's leadership of CONNAISSIDA, a collaborative action-research team studying the medical anthropology of AIDS in Zaire from 1985 to 1990. The need for a broad approach to social research in support of AIDS prevention is argued.