Of course, worldwide people are susceptible to superstition, and if you want to talk about harmful superstitions that affect HIV transmission then look no further than policy pushed throughout Africa by US Christian right-wingers. The excellent documentary "God Loves Uganda" discusses how the most recent Bush administration threatened to withhold foreign aid from Uganda and other countries if they distributed birth control or didn't adhere to abstinence-only education.

Here in Cambodia expats constantly gripe about lazy native people, considering them stupid for not wanting to embrace every facet of Western culture. A common example that I've seen repeated in books and internet forums alike is that Cambodians won't adopt Western farming practices (like showering plants in pesticides) and so they must be just backwards and ignorant. Never is it considered that the native people, who have lived here for generations, might have different priorites or know something that a rich asshole from the West, who's been here 6 months, does not.