"Our more recent work (in progress) provides further evidence on the intricate development effects of the Christian influence in Africa (Cagé & Rueda 2016b). We study the role played by early missionary investments in sub-Saharan Africa to explain HIV/AIDS prevalence nowadays. On the one hand, missionaries were the first to invest in medicine in a number of countries. The history of modern medicine in sub-Saharan Africa is indeed closely linked to the development of missionary activity. According to the World Missionary Atlas (Beach and Fahs 1925), there were 150 missionary physicians in Africa in 1925, and more than 235 nurses working with nearly 500 trained native nurses in 116 hospitals and 366 dispensaries. Moreover, the early Christian provision of health care persisted after colonisation and is particularly influential in the design of health care in poor countries (Idler 2014). On the other hand, health investments are not the only way through which missionary activity may have affected the propagation of HIV/AIDS. Christian values also affect sexually transmitted diseases and there is quantitative and historical evidence that missionaries actively changed sexual behaviours (Vaughan 2007, Doyle 2013, Mantovanelli 2014). We show that the net effect of proximity to historical mission settlements on HIV prevalence is negative. As seen in Figure 4, regions far from missions tend to have less HIV prevalence today. This general correlation cannot be fully captured by the fact that missions tend to be located in what are today more densely populated areas, or by any other geographical determinant of missionary activity. However, this negative effect can be captured by negative perceptions of condom use and contraception. Among regions historically close to missionary settlements, proximity to a health investment is associated with lower prevalence rates, more acceptance of contraception, and lower exposure to risky behaviours, such as buying the services of sex workers."