Over the past few years, ever since the advent of HIV and AIDS, there has been increasing discussion of the concept of sexual health. This upsurge is especially noticeable not only in the field of health education and promotion but also in academic sources. The recent discourse on sexual health is paralleled by an upsurge in the debate on sexual rights. This book examines the social construction of sexual health in India through an analysis of HIV and AIDS messages. The broad objective of the chapters is to trace the growth and evolution of the concept of sexual health from a health communication perspective and to understand the role of the state in determining its form and structure. The methodology used includes comparative analysis of HIV and AIDS policies, document analysis on HIV and AIDS, poster and short films analysis, in depth and open-ended Interviews and case studies. The book shows that Sexual Health is constructed in various modes in India. The models that are elaborated are the Medical model that constructs HIV scientifically and in terms of a compromised immune system; the Epidemic model that identifies risk behaviours and transmission routes and the Moralistic model. Social constructions of AIDS as plague or punishment against society are advanced by moralists who equate HIV with taboo social and sexual behaviour and the political constructions highlights public health in the face of obstacles to treatment and the delivery of services to people living with HIV. Bringing together current research and discussions on the three areas of policy, practices and theoretical perspectives related to the use and social construction of sexual health through HIV and AIDS communication approaches with specific reference to India, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of health communication, HIV and AIDS, and South Asian Studies.

First published in 1996. The incidence of HIV/AIDS in society has reached epidemic levels. People of all ages are contracting the disease, and with the advances in medication and treatment, those with the disease are living longer. This book discusses the unique issues facing older adults with HIV/AIDS and addresses living with the disease.

This is the first book-length study of the rich fiction that has emerged from the AIDS crisis. Examining first the ways in which scientific discourse on AIDS has reflected ideologies of gender and sexuality-such as the construction of AIDS as a disease of gay men, part of a battle over masculinity, and thus largely excluding women with AIDS from public attention-the book considers how such discourses have shaped narrative understandings of AIDS. On the one hand, AIDS is seen as an invariably fatal weakening of an individual's bodily defenses, a depiction often used to reconfirm an identification between disease and a weak and vulnerable gayness. On the other hand, AIDS is understood in terms of an epidemic attributable to gay "immorality" or "unnaturalness." The fiction of AIDS depends upon these two narratives, with one major subgenre of AIDS novel presenting narratives of personal illness, decline, and death, and a second focusing on epidemic "spread." These novels also question the narrative structures upon which they depend, intervening particularly against the homophobia of those structures, though also sometimes reinforcing it.

Some 12 years into the epidemic, with an effective preventive vaccine or therapy against HIV disease still to be found, this book reflects on the contributions of social and behavioural research to the development of interventions for prevention. After over a decade's work documenting HIV and AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, social researchers have begun to focus more clearly on perceptions of sexual safety and risk, and the factors that contribute to these. The issues addressed by the book were examined during three major conferences in 1994: the annual conference of the British Sociological Association, the 2nd International Conference on the BioPsychoSocial Aspects of AIDS and the Xth International Conference on AIDS. The book brings together key papers presented at each of these conferences, documenting issues of focal concern to social researchers, policy makers and health educators in the mid-1990s.

In this important book, editor Michael Ross brings together the latest knowledge and research concerning the relationship between HIV and AIDS and sexual functioning. HIV/AIDS and Sexuality explores the experiences of being HIV-infected and the impact of infection on an individual's sexuality. It describes differences that may be associated with individuals who are infected or concerned about infection, and it provides new in-depth analyses of the effect of HIV on sexuality and sexual risks. The book provides clinical perspectives on sexual problems associated with HIV infection as well as some treatment approaches. Contributing authors represent the United States, Australia, and Europe and discuss heterosexual men and women, gay men, lesbians, and injecting drug users. This diversity provides a more complete picture of the experiences of people with HIV in terms of explicit and implicit sexuality. Chapters include cross-sectional and cohort study designs as well as qualitative, quantitative, and clinical approaches. Some of the topics explored are: the centrality of sexuality to equality of life and identity and the impact of HIV on sexuality in gay-identified men the psychological impact of making changes in sexual behavior on gay men with HIV infection risk behaviors in seropositive and seronegative women a study of a cohort of HIV-infected women associated with the military sexual addiction in gay men and its association with HIV risks overt and subtle communications processes that occur between health care providers and clients about sexuality and HIV stages of change in safer sexual practices in a cohort of gay men personality variables associated with risk and infection in both homosexual and heterosexual menHIV/AIDS and Sexuality opens up the area of sexuality in people living with HIV and focuses much-needed attention on the issues involved in sexual expression, HIV transmission risk, and living with HIV infection. This book is an illuminating exploration into the subject that helps professionals better understand their clients and thus provide more compassionate and effective care.

Based on the findings of a research project conducted by the World Health Organisation, this book contains unpublished material on AIDS-related knowledge and sexual behaviour in countries in Africa, Asia and South America, including: Cote d'Ivoire; Kenya; Lesotho; Mauritius; Tanzania; Sri Lanka; Singapore; Thailand; and Brazil. The book provides an in-depth comparative analysis of the findings from 16 key surveys in the original research programme, the aim of which was to identify baseline levels of sexual and other risk behaviours. The text is intended to be of use to a wide range of readers, including those working in health education, social and behavioural research, anthropology, social medicine and sexual behaviour research.

Some 12 years into the epidemic, with an effective preventive vaccine or therapy against HIV disease still to be found, this book reflects on the contributions of social and behavioural research to the development of interventions for prevention. After over a decade's work documenting HIV and AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, social researchers have begun to focus more clearly on perceptions of sexual safety and risk, and the factors that contribute to these. The issues addressed by the book were examined during three major conferences in 1994: the annual conference of the British Sociological Association, the 2nd International Conference on the BioPsychoSocial Aspects of AIDS and the Xth International Conference on AIDS. The book brings together key papers presented at each of these conferences, documenting issues of focal concern to social researchers, policy makers and health educators in the mid-1990s.

It is estimated that 90 per cent of those who are HIV positive are in employment. However, the significant body of literature into HIV/AIDS to date has primarily focused on the medical aspects of the disease and its implications for health/social policy. There has been little analysis of the employment implications of HIV/AIDS, and what does exist is essentially descriptive and usually limited to legal features of the employment relationship. This text provides a review of the theoretical and practical issues which bear upon organisational responses to HIV/AIDS. The authors set these responses in a historical and international context, before analysing recent research findings. In the first three chapters, issues are explored through an analysis which highlights international convergences and divergences. The remaining chapters draw on the authors' research to explore the "internal" dynamics of HIV/AIDS in the workplace.

Based on the findings of a research project conducted by the World Health Organisation, this book contains unpublished material on AIDS-related knowledge and sexual behaviour in countries in Africa, Asia and South America, including: Cote d'Ivoire; Kenya; Lesotho; Mauritius; Tanzania; Sri Lanka; Singapore; Thailand and Brazil. The book provides an in-depth comparative analysis of the findings from 16 key surveys in the original research programme, the aim of which was to identify baseline levels of sexual and other risk behaviours. The text is intended to be of use to a wide range of readers, including those working in health education, social and behavioural research, anthropology, social medicine and sexual behaviour research.

It is estimated that 90 per cent of those who are HIV positive are in employment. However, the significant body of literature into HIV/AIDS to date has primarily focused on the medical aspects of the disease and its implications for health/social policy. There has been little analysis of the employment implications of HIV/AIDS, and what does exist is essentially descriptive and usually limited to legal features of the employment relationship. This text provides a review of the theoretical and practical issues which bear upon organisational responses to HIV/AIDS. The authors set these responses in a historical and international context, before analysing recent research findings. In the first three chapters, issues are explored through an analysis which highlights international convergences and divergences. The remaining chapters draw on the authors' research to explore the "internal" dynamics of HIV/AIDS in the workplace.

Culture and Sexual Risk addresses many controversial themes that have emerged over the last few years: the ethics of sex research, the role of Westem anthropologists in developing nations, the role of heterosexuals in AIDS research and the impact of AIDS on the discipline of anthropology. Brummelhuis and Herdt provide an intense examination of sexual risk and its cultural configurations heretofore missing from the AIDS literature. The chapters on Westem gay men speak to the pressing methodological, conceptual and theoretical needs in HIV/AIDS research while providing an understanding and documentation of gay men's lives within the emerging corpus of lesbian and gay studies. Chapters on the Philippines, Brazil, Haiti and Africa explore the cultural, political and economic contexts surrounding the transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS in these cultures.

Culture and Sexual Risk addresses many controversial themes that have emerged over the last few years: the ethics of sex research, the role of Westem anthropologists in developing nations, the role of heterosexuals in AIDS research and the impact of AIDS on the discipline of anthropology. Brummelhuis and Herdt provide an intense examination of sexual risk and its cultural configurations heretofore missing from the AIDS literature. The chapters on Westem gay men speak to the pressing methodological, conceptual and theoretical needs in HIV/AIDS research while providing an understanding and documentation of gay men's lives within the emerging corpus of lesbian and gay studies. Chapters on the Philippines, Brazil, Haiti and Africa explore the cultural, political and economic contexts surrounding the transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS in these cultures.

This guide to the legal aspects of AIDS has been thoroughly revised. Written by experienced legal professionals under the auspices of Britain's major AIDS charity, it addresses areas of the law affected by AIDS, including: insurance, housing, employment, children and young people, and immigration. It examines all the legal needs of people with AIDS and HIV infection. The book includes a section on the medico-legal aspects of AIDS (such as antibody testing and the subject of informed consent) and a chapter on the legal and practical steps towards setting up a voluntary or charitable organization. Concise and accessible, this guide should be useful to counsellors, health and social workers, lawyers, welfare agency advisors and anyone who needs a legal rights guide to AIDS.

"Heavenly Hurts Surviving AIDS-Related Deaths and Losses" imparts vital information for anyone touched by deaths and losses of HIV/AIDS. In the AIDS pandemic, efforts are focused on persons living with AIDS (PLWA). Neglected are professional and non-professional caregivers, families, and friends. They are surviving deaths of loved ones from AIDS-related illness, or are dealing with multiple losses of HIV/AIDS. "Heavenly Hurts" provides guidance, support and coping skills, along with discussions of death language; AIDS grief; death in the workplace; and cultural and spiritual issues around death.

This book provides a global overview of the role of the community sector, examining in detail the origins and activities of community organizations in Europe, the Americas, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and the Pacific. It also describes the impact of sexuality and gender on AIDS activism and AIDS organizing, as well as broader cultural responses to the epidemic. It charts the emergence and development of the community sector response to HIV and AIDS, illustrating the factors that led affected individuals and communities to organize, question, challenge and redefine initial governmental responses to the epidemic. It describes the contribution of the community / NGO sector to global efforts to prevent the spread of the disease, highlighting tensions which have sometimes arisen within community based organizations themselves: tensions between activism and service provision, between altruism and self help, between volunteer participation and management control, and between fluidity of function and increasing bureaucratization. "Power and Community" has grown out of the author's intellectual and political commitment to the idea that without support from strong community

AIDS: Setting a Feminist Agenda" presents an overview of the important issues raised for feminist theory and practice by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and outlines the direction in which feminist debates about the subject are developing. It makes essential links between feminism and HIV/AIDS work, and not only demonstrates that AIDS is a feminist issue, but also suggests areas where feminism is long overdue. The essays discuss medical issues; the specific social and political impact of HIV/AIDS on the lives of women of colour, lesbians, injecting drug users and prostitute women; And Current Health Educational And Health Promotional Practice As It relates to women.; The volume is theoretical and practical - suggesting theoretical models for understanding and challenging the social factors which are conducive to the spread of HIV among women and among men, as well as offering models of good practice for working with and for women.

HIV and AIDS have posed new challenges to societies, communities and individuals. In many parts of the world, existing health and social services have been hard pressed to cope with the dermands of the epidemic. In hospitals and in the community, new approaches to health education, support and care have been developed. Non-governmental and community organizations have had a central role to play in responding to the challenge of HIV and AIDS. "AIDS: Foundations for the Future" highlights progress made over the last decade, and offers an agenda for future activism and research. This book examines the extent to which sound foundations for the future have been laid in public, private and voluntary sector action. It focuses on topics as diverse as workplace policy on HIV and AIDS, voluntary sector responses, the reactions of health care workers, the experience of living with AIDS, outreach work and community action, patterns of male prostitution, and new interventions to promote and maintain safer sex and safer drug use.

First published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Series Information:
Social Aspects of AIDS

Drawing on the findings of the Social Aspects of the Prevention of AIDS (SAPA) project established in 1986, this volume presents new data on the sexual and sociological responses to the AIDS epidemic in Australia, assisting both government and non-government HIW AIDS agencies, federal and state, in policy formulation on gay and bisexual men and in the development of prevention education programmes. In a region heavily hit by the AIDS epidemic, the communities have made significant efforts at preventing the spread of the virus and the SAPA project was devised to assess the effectiveness of these efforts. The research in the SAPA project and its follow-up study, The Triple S or SAPA: Sustaining Safe Sex survey, was carried out using theories and practice of theory from the emerging field of the social construction of sexuality. It adopts a broad perspective confirming analyses carried out in other countries.

This book is a major empirical study of sexual behaviour in the UK. It is based on the findings of project SIGMA - whch is the major British initiative in the AIDS field, funded by the Department of Health and the Medical Research Council. Using in-depth qualitative analysis, the authors have developed new theories of sexuality. They have collected detailed information from over 1000 men in high-risk categories and examined their behavioural changes in response to HIV/AIDS over a four year period 1987-1991. The book presents the latest research on knowledge of HIV, attitudes to AIDS and the uptake of safer sex practices. It reports on the sexual lives of gay men in England and Wales against the backdrop of the HIV epidemic.

Providing a cross-cultural perspective on the social construction of AIDS in Brazil, this book presents research by authors who have a decade's experience in AIDS activism and social research. The final section offers a powerful portrayal of problems faced by a person living with AIDS.

Providing a cross-cultural perspective on the social construction of AIDS in Brazil, this book presents research by authors who have a decades experience in AIDS activism and social research.

A guide to the theory and practice of systemic HIV counselling that helps in identifying, assessing, and managing the psychological problems commonly associated with HIV infection. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

This much-needed book presents an introduction and overview of multicultural AIDS issues in social work practice. In a culturally diverse nation, it is essential that professionals look at AIDS within a cultural context in order to find the most effective treatment and prevention strategies for everyone. Emphasizing this need for a culturally sensitive approach, Multicultural Human Services for AIDS Treatment and Prevention increases social workers'often limited knowledge and experience with various social and ethnic groups. It provides specific suggestions and recommendations for program development and acts as a foundation upon which to build new strategies for policy, research, and practice. Multicultural Human Services for AIDS Treatment and Prevention emphasizes the importance of encouraging and sharing research that addresses AIDS and minority populations and assessing prevention, education, and behavioral change strategies from culturally specific and relevant perspectives. It includes chapters focusing on African Americans, Native American Indians, Hawaiians, Puerto Ricans, and Mexican prostitutes--groups that often suffer disproportionately from poverty and its myriad effects. Some topics discussed in the book are: helping clients reduce cultural dissonance how to enhance behavior change child welfare and permanency planning empowerment of clients and health care models knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding HIV/AIDS cultural contradictions and ambivalence in response to AIDSMulticultural Human Services for AIDS Treatment and Prevention is an extremely useful and informative book for all professionals in social work and human services who want to be better prepared to help all groups of people. The book is also an ideal text for upper-level social work students studying topics such as multicultural issues in social work practice, AIDS in a cultural context, and health policy and health care systems.