Critical health communication scholars point out that the acceptance of HIV risk prevention methods are bound inside inequitable structures of power and knowledge. Nicola Bulled's in-depth ethnographic account of how these messages are selected, transmitted and reacted to by young adults in the AIDS-torn population of Lesotho in southern Africa provides a crucial example of the importance of a culture-centered approach to health communication. She shows the clash between traditional western perceptions of how increased knowledge will increase compliance with western ideas of prevention, and mixed messages offered by local religious, educational, and media institutions. Bulled also demonstrates how structural and geographical forces prevent the delivery and acceptance of health messages, and how local communities shape their own knowledge of health, disease and illness. This volume will be of interest to medical anthropologists and sociologists, to those in health communication, and to researchers working on issues related to HIV.

As the HIV epidemic moves into its fourth decade, it is clear that the global response has failed to adequately address the needs of a wide range of vulnerable populations and groups. Chief among these are gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, and transgender persons, who globally face the disproportional burden of HIV infection. This volume rethinks HIV prevention and health promotion for sexual and gender minorities - in both the industrialised societies of the West, as well as in the developing nations of the Global South. The chapters it contains offer a critical analysis of past and present HIV research employing categories to designate gay and other men who have sex with men, transgender persons, and/or other persons and communities with diverse gender and sexual identities. Contributors question the politics of many of the existing classifications and categories in HIV research and argue for a more sophisticated analysis of gender and sexual diversity in order to tackle the social and political barriers that impede the design of successful HIV prevention and health promotion approaches. This book was originally published as a special issue of Global Public Health.

Originally published in 1998 Sexual Behaviour and HIV/AIDS in Europe is detailed study comparing the major population surveys on sexual behaviour and HIV/AIDS carried out in Europe at the time of publication. Leading European researchers explore the differences and similarities between European countries in patterns of sexual behaviour and responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As well as providing an empirical and methodological base for future research, the comparative analyses lead researchers, policy makers, health-educators and the media to new insights and a deeper understanding of issues that are of central concern in many countries. The chapters include discussion of data on sexual initiation, homosexual and bisexual behaviour, sexual practices, sexual partners, risk behaviour, STDs, preventive practices, the normative context, knowledge of HIV/AIDS, and attitudes towards people with HIV/AIDS. The book results from a major European Concerted Action, funded by the European Union Biomedical and Health Research programme (BIOMED), and coordinated by the Centre d'Etudes Sociologiques of the Facultes Universitaires Saint-Louis, Brussels, Belgium. It follows Sexual Interactions and HIV Risk, published in 1997.

Brazil has occupied a central role in the access to medicines movement, especially with respect to drugs used to treat those with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). How and why Brazil succeeded in overcoming powerful political and economic interests, both at home and abroad, to roll-out and sustain treatment represents an intellectual puzzle. In this book, Matthew Flynn traces the numerous challenges Brazil faced in its efforts to provide essential medicines to all of its citizens. Using dependency theory, state theory, and moral underpinnings of markets, Flynn delves deeper into the salient factors contributing to Brazil's successes and weaknesses, including control over technology, creation of political alliances, and instrumental use of normative frameworks and effectively explains the ability of countries to fulfill the prescription drug needs of its population versus the interests and operations of the global pharmaceutical industry Pharmaceutical Autonomy and Public Health in Latin America is one of the only books to provide an in-depth account of the challenges that a developing country, like Brazil, faces to fulfill public health objectives amidst increasing global economic integration and new international trade agreements. Scholars interested in public health issues, HIV/AIDS, and human rights, but also to social scientists interested in Latin America and international political economy will find this an original and thought provoking read.

The AIDS crisis reshaped life in Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s and radicalized a new generation of queer Asian Americans with a broad vision of health equity and sexual freedom. Even amid the fear and grief, Asian American AIDS activists created an infrastructure of care that centered the most stigmatized and provided diverse immigrant communities with the health resources and information they needed. Without a formal blueprint, these young organizers often had to be creative and agitational, and together they reclaimed the pleasure in sex and fostered inclusivity, regardless of HIV status. A community memoir, Love Your Asian Body connects the deeply personal with the uncompromisingly political in telling the stories of more than thirty Asian American AIDS activists. In those early years of the epidemic, these activists became caregivers, social workers, nurses, researchers, and advocates for those living with HIV. And for many, the AIDS epidemic sparked the beginning of their continued work to build multiracial coalitions and confront broader systemic inequities. Detailing the intertwined realities of race and sexuality in AIDS activism, Love Your Asian Body offers a vital portrait of a movement founded on joy.

AIDS and the Distribution of Crises engages with the AIDS pandemic as a network of varied historical, overlapping, and ongoing crises born of global capitalism and colonial, racialized, gendered, and sexual violence. Drawing on their investments in activism, media, anticolonialism, feminism, and queer and trans of color critiques, the scholars, activists, and artists in this volume outline how the neoliberal logic of "crisis" structures how AIDS is aesthetically, institutionally, and politically reproduced and experienced. Among other topics, the authors examine the writing of the history of AIDS; settler colonial narratives and laws impacting risk in Indigenous communities; the early internet regulation of both content and online AIDS activism; the Black gendered and sexual politics of pleasure, desire, and (in)visibility; and how persistent attention to white men has shaped AIDS as intrinsic to multiple, unremarkable crises among people of color and in the Global South. Contributors. Cecilia Aldarondo, Pablo Alvarez, Marlon M. Bailey, Emily Bass, Darius Bost, Ian Bradley-Perrin, Jih-Fei Cheng, Bishnupriya Ghosh, Roger Hallas, Pato Hebert, Jim Hubbard, Andrew J. Jolivette, Julia S. Jordan-Zachery, Alexandra Juhasz, Dredge Byung'chu Kang-Nguyen, Theodore (Ted) Kerr, Catherine Yuk-ping Lo, Cait McKinney, Viviane Namaste, Elton Naswood, Cindy Patton, Margaret Rhee, Juana Maria Rodriguez, Sarah Schulman, Nishant Shahani, C. Riley Snorton, Eric A. Stanley, Jessica Whitbread, Quito Ziegler

Paula A. Treichler has become a singularly important voice among the significant theorists on the AIDS crisis. Dissecting the cultural politics surrounding representations of HIV and AIDS, her work has altered the field of cultural studies by establishing medicine as a legitimate focus for cultural analysis. "How to Have Theory in an Epidemic" is a comprehensive collection of Treichler's related writings, including revised and updated essays from the 1980s and 1990s that present a sustained argument about the AIDS epidemic from a uniquely knowledgeable and interdisciplinary standpoint.
"AIDS is more than an epidemic disease," Treichler writes, "it is an epidemic of meanings." Exploring how such meanings originate, proliferate, and take hold, her essays investigate how certain interpretations of the epidemic dominate while others are obscured. They also suggest ways to understand and choose between overlapping or competing discourses. In her coverage of roughly fifteen years of the AIDS epidemic, Treichler addresses a range of key issues, from biomedical discourse and theories of pathogenesis to the mainstream media's depictions of the crisis in both developed and developing countries. She also examines representations of women and AIDS, treatment issues, and the role of activism in shaping the politics of the epidemic. Linking the AIDS tragedy to a uniquely broad spectrum of contemporary theory and culture, this collection concludes with an essay on the continued importance of theoretical thought for untangling the sociocultural phenomena of AIDS--and for tackling the disease itself.
With an exhaustive bibliography of critical and theoretical writings on HIV and AIDS, this long-awaited volume will be essential to all those invested in studying the course of AIDS, its devastating medical effects, and its massive impact on contemporary culture. It should become a standard text in university courses dealing with AIDS in biomedicine, sociology, anthropology, gay and lesbian studies, women's studies, and cultural and media studies.

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This book argues that the AIDS pandemic is an international security issue because of its impact on the armed forces in Africa, and because of the growing social, political, and economic challenges that it is generating for state stability in the worst affected countries. The international community must devote more resources and more sustained efforts towards addressing the global AIDS pandemic.

Since the early days of the AIDS epidemic, many bizarre and dangerous hypotheses have been advanced to explain the origins of the disease. In this compelling book, Nicoli Nattrass explores the social and political factors prolonging the erroneous belief that the American government manufactured the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to be used as a biological weapon, as well as the myth's consequences for behavior, especially within African American and black South African communities. Contemporary AIDS denialism, the belief that HIV is harmless and that antiretroviral drugs are the true cause of AIDS, is a more insidious AIDS conspiracy theory. Advocates of this position make a "conspiratorial move" against HIV science by implying its methods cannot be trusted and that untested, alternative therapies are safer than antiretrovirals. These claims are genuinely life-threatening, as tragically demonstrated in South Africa when the delay of antiretroviral treatment resulted in nearly 333,000 AIDS deaths and 180,000 HIV infections-a tragedy of stunning proportions. Nattrass identifies four symbolically powerful figures ensuring the lifespan of AIDS denialism: the hero scientist (dissident scientists who lend credibility to the movement); the cultropreneur (alternative therapists who exploit the conspiratorial move as a marketing mechanism); the living icon (individuals who claim to be living proof of AIDS denialism's legitimacy); and the praise-singer (journalists who broadcast movement messages to the public). Nattrass also describes how pro-science activists have fought back by deploying empirical evidence and political credibility to resist AIDS conspiracy theories, which is part of the crucial project to defend evidence-based medicine.

Dr. Phillips has assembled well-published authors on optimizing patient outcomes in those living with HIV and AIDS. The clinical reviews in this issue will provide nurses with the current clinical information they need to incorporate best practices into their patient care and manageement. Articles are devoted to the following topics: Exercise and Positive Living in HIV/AIDS; Managing Other Chronic Illnesses in PLWHAl; Nutritional Issues and Positive Living in HIV/AIDS; Spiritual Dimensions/Resilience; Positive Thinking in HIV/AIDS; Health Promotion in HIV/AIDS; Mental Health in HIV/AIDS; Promoting Cardiovascular Health in PLWHA; Pharmacological Considerations in HIV/AIDS; and Sleep Disturbances Associated with HIV/AIDS.

The care paradigm for people with HIV has shifted from managing progressive illness with a poor prognosis to managing a chronic condition. Despite this improvement, people living with HIV continue to experience considerable stresses, so promoting their holistic wellbeing is a key aspect of long-term care. This book provides an accessible introduction for healthcare professionals who work with people living with HIV. It is designed to help readers understand how care in practice can be more person-centred and psychologically focused, whilst promoting compassion, health and wellbeing. Topics covered include self-awareness, attachment theories and communication as well as key aspects of providing care for people living with HIV, such as stigma in young adults, neurocognitive issues, the sexualized use of drugs, managing neuropathic pain, and the needs of older adults living with HIV. Invaluable reading for health professionals working within multidisciplinary teams that provide care for people living with HIV, this book is also a core text for those studying in the area.

In 1992, Dr. Ross A. Slotten had the dubious distinction of signing more death certificates in the city of Chicago--and, by inference, the state of Illinois--than any other physician. As a family physician, he trained to care for patients from birth to death, but when he completed his residency in 1984, he had no idea that many of his future patients would be cut down in the prime of their lives. Among those patients were close friends, colleagues, and former lovers, who were shunned by most of the medical community because of their sexual orientation and HIV-positive status. Slotten wasn't an infectious disease specialist, but because of his unique position as a gay man and a young physician, he became an unlikely pioneer, swept up in the maelstrom of one of the greatest epidemics in modern human history. In Plague Years, Slotten offers a unique first-person account of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, drawing from private journals and notes from his thirty-plus years of practice. Spanning not just the city of Chicago, but four continents as well, Plague Years provides a comprehensive portrait of the epidemic, from its mystery-riddled early years through the reckless governmental responses of the United States and other nations that led to legions of senseless deaths and ruined lives to the discoveries of life-saving drug cocktails that transformed the disease into something potentially manageable. Unlike most other books on the subject, Slotten's story extends to the present day, when prevention of infection for those at risk and successful treatment of those already infected offer a ray of hope that HIV/AIDS can be stopped in its tracks. Alternating between Slotten's reactions to the crisis as a gay man and the demanding toll the disease took on his career and the world around him, Plague Years sheds light on some of the darkest hours in the history of the LGBT community in a way that no previous medical memoir has.

Last year, more African Americans were reported with AIDS than any other racial or ethnic group. And while African Americans make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for more than 55 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV infections. These alarming developments have caused reactions ranging from profound grief to extreme anger in African-American communities, yet the organized political reaction has remained remarkably restrained.
"The Boundaries of Blackness" is the first full-scale exploration of the social, political, and cultural impact of AIDS on the African-American community. Informed by interviews with activists, ministers, public officials, and people with AIDS, Cathy Cohen unflinchingly brings to light how the epidemic fractured, rather than united, the black community. She traces how the disease separated blacks along different fault lines and analyzes the ensuing struggles and debates.
More broadly, Cohen analyzes how other cross-cutting issues--of class, gender, and sexuality--challenge accepted ideas of who belongs in the community. Such issues, she predicts, will increasingly occupy the political agendas of black organizations and institutions and can lead to either greater inclusiveness or further divisiveness.
"The Boundaries of Blackness," by examining the response of a changing community to an issue laced with stigma, has much to teach us about oppression, resistance, and marginalization. It also offers valuable insight into how the politics of the African-American community--and other marginal groups--will evolve in the twenty-first century.

Based on research by a leading geographer and specialist in diffusion theory, The Slow Plague discloses the geographic dimension of the AIDS pandemic. It provides a lucid description of the HIV, its origins, and the extent to which it has now permeated our lives. The author shows how the virus jumps from city to city, creating regional epicenters from which it spreads into surrounding areas.

Four case studies at different geographic scales demonstrate the devastating effects of the disease. In Africa the situation is catastrophic, in Thailand it is rapidly becoming so. In the US there are over 300,000 people with AIDS and more than one million infected by the HIV. The relationships between poverty, drugs and HIV infection are brought out poignantly in a chapter about the Bronx.

The author argues that a real understanding of AIDS has been hampered by conscious or unconscious beliefs that those affected are, and will continue to be, confined to specific minority groups and to parts of the Third World. He shows that such views have led to fundamental misconceptions about the pattern of the spread of the disease and about those who will be most at risk, now and in the immediate future.

Carolyn Jones's vivid and life-affirming portraits capture people from all backgrounds -- children and grandmothers, men and women of all races -- living with HIV and AIDS.
It is estimated that over one million people in the United States would test positive for the Human Immune Virus, and many others are already suffering from Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. A common-and harmful-misconception holds that AIDS is an instant death sentence but, in fact, testing positive for HIV does not mean immediate illness. Carolyn Jones has collaborated with George DeSipio, Jr., and Michael Liberatore (co-founders of the project), and the seventy-three people who volunteered to pose for these photographs in an inspiring effort to change the way we think about AIDS. Jones's compelling portraits have the power to profoundly alter perceptions about this disease, and about the way we all live and die. AIDS poses challenging questions that we must each grapple with, whether healthy or not. These captivating pictures illustrate the self-confidence and wisdom of ordinary people coping with an extraordinary fate, facing their mortality, questioning their priorities, and living life to the fullest. Their energy, courage, and dignity in the face of such adversity offer a vital lesson in how to embrace life, day by day. Their faces and their stories are proof that AIDS doesn't look like anyone -- it looks like, and ultimately is, all of us.
Design Industries Foundation for AIDS (DIFFA) is the sole recipient of the royalties from the sale of "Living Proof." For additional information regarding "Living Proof" and the Design Industries Foundation for AIDS, please call DIFFA, (212) 727-3100.

"Adelman and Frey take advantage of every opportunity to leave their audience with a splendid reading experience that will prompt one to think about community and communication in new and exciting ways. And as it should be, the reader also will not soon forget the echoes of the voices of the ordinary, but remarkable, men and women who inspired the work -- the residents who live and have lived in the fragile community at BH". -- Journal of Health Communication

This book examines the concept of "community", focusing on how communication practices help manage the tensions of creating and sustaining everyday communal life amidst the crisis of human loss. While acknowledging how the contradictory and inconsistent nature of human relationships inevitably affects community, this intimate and compelling text shows how community is created and sustained in concrete communication practices.

The authors explore these ideas at Bonaventure House, an award-winning residential facility for people with AIDS, where the web of social relationships and the demands of a life-threatening illness intersect in complex ways. Facing a life-threatening illness can defy meaningful social connections, but it can also inspire such ties, sometimes in ways that elude us in the course of daily life. By understanding how collective communication practices help residents forge a sense of community out of the fragility and chaos f living together with AIDS, we are able to better understand how communication is inexorably intertwined with the formation of community in other environments.

Based on seven years of ethnographic research including participant-observation, in-depth interviews, and questionnaires, thisbook weaves together narratives and visual images with conceptual analysis to uncover the ongoing oppositional forces of community life, and to show how both mundane and profound communication processes ameliorate these tensions, and thereby sustain this fragile community. Because the average length of stay for a resident is seven months -- in which time he or she moves from being a newcomer to a community member to someone the community remembers -- the text reflects this short, but crystallized life, starting with the day a new resident opens the door to the day he or she passes away.

The writing is very rich -- intimate, engaging, personal, compelling, and vivid. The stories told discuss such deeply personal topics as the dilemmas of romantic relationships in a context fraught with many perils; issues of power, authority, and control that enable and constrain social life; and communicative practices that help residents cope with bereavement over the loss of others as well as their own impending deaths. The text concludes by examining the lessons learned from Bonaventure House about creating and sustaining a health community, and serves as an inspiration for strengthening interpersonal relationships and communities in other environments.

A remarkable partnership between the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Moi University School of Medicine in Kenya has built one of the most comprehensive and successful programs in the world to control HIV/AIDS. Calling upon the resources of the Americans, the ingenuity of the Kenyans, and their shared determination to care for patients who had been given up for dead, the program has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and described as a miracle by the U.S. ambassador to Kenya. Doctors from Kenya and the United States employing methods once considered unfeasible, such as successfully administered antiretroviral regimes have created a model program for saving lives and empowering the sick and impoverished. Against formidable odds, these partners demonstrate how medicine and caring can overturn preconceived notions about Africa and help wipe out the world's most devastating pandemic."

Health of HIV Infected People: Food, Nutrition and Lifestyle Without Antiretroviral Drugs defines the supportive roles of bioactive foods, exercise, and dietary supplements on the health of HIV infected people who do not have access to resources or those who choose not to utilize antiretroviral drugs. Approaches such as the application of traditional herbs and foods are given careful definition by experts who define the risks and benefits of such practices within this important context. Readers learn how to treat or ameliorate the effects of chronic retroviral disease using readily available, cheap foods, and dietary supplements. Ultimately, this work delivers a current, concise, scientific appraisal of the efficacy of key foods, nutrients, dietary plants, and behavioral changes in preventing and improving the quality of life of HIV infected infants and adults who are not undergoing antiretroviral therapy.

This edited book includes new policy-relevant research on women's health issues in Africa. Scholars explore critical topics from different disciplinary traditions using a variety of research methodologies and data sources. The contributors include African scholars with in-depth knowledge of their home contexts, who can furnish nuanced interpretations of local health issues and trends; international researchers who bring vigorous comparative viewpoints; emerging scholars adding to scientific knowledge; and more established researchers with a deep global knowledge of women's health issues. The range of women's health issues is vast, including the HIV epidemic and its impacts; domestic violence; the persistence of homebirths; and abortion. In addition, the book investigates emerging health concerns such as CVDs and cancers. Readers will learn that, while old health issues have persisted and assumed new dimensions, newer concerns have materialized and are now gaining momentum. The inability of health systems to tackle these issues complicates matters in Africa, creating a sense of desperation that can only be successfully confronted through strong political will and strategic planning, grounded in further research. The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal Health Care for Women International.

This book represents a body of work performed by students from a diverse set of disciplines and a variety of universities in the United States and Santiago, Chile. Each project was developed by the students to "break the cycle of social, economic and environmental health disparities". This book contains the projects from the eighth annual Break the Cycle' program. "Break the Cycle" projects are designed to raise awareness among the students of the reality of environmental health disparities and its impact on the world around them. Although students may feel daunted by the magnitude of the challenge, they need to know that even the relatively small project they develop can make a big difference and becomes part of an inexorable process towards making the world a better place for all of its citizens. The dictum that "It is not incumbent upon you to finish the task, yet, you are not free to desist from it" empowers the students to take on a challenge for a lifetime and beyond. We believe that the lessons the students learned from their own projects, from working with the other students and from appreciating the difference that each little effort can make, goes significantly towards cultivating our future leaders; these are the people who will carry on the work and make the world a better place in their time.

Caregiving is a long standing tradition in the African American community. This book provides historical and contemporary insight into caregiving. The authors intertwine the African American struggle for dignity and social justice with their discussion of various aspects of caregiving. An overarching theme of the book is the resilience of African Americans in carrying out their caregiving responsibilities. Although disparities are a part of the caregiving landscape, the authors individually and collectively present a rhythm of caregiving that engages the reader in caregiving across the life span. This in depth look at the African American caregiving experience exposes readers to a broader lens, thus avoiding the often overly simplistic view or culturally limited view of their caregiving experience. Caregiving is not limited to any particular groupthe old and the young are a part of the caregiving experience that is discussed in this book. The book is a collaboration between social work programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities---Howard University (Washington, DC) and Alabama A&M University (Normal, Alabama). The book includes a wide range of content, from caring for older persons with dementia to younger disabled children. The authors/contributors also range in age and experience as caregivers. All of the authors have extensive experience working with African Americans. These are authentic accounts of the caregiving experience within the African American community.

This second part of a 2-part issue of Infectious Disease Clinics, edited by Michael S. Saag, MD and Henry Masur, MD, is devoted to HIV/AIDS. This issue will address the prevention of HIV/AIDS with topics such as: Mother to Child Transmission; Treatment as Prevention; Barrier and Microbicides; Prevention of HIV/AIDS: Pre-exposure Prophylaxis; Post-Exposure Prophylaxis; HIV Vaccine, and a final article addressing the cure of HIV/AIDS.

This first part of a 2-part issue of Infectious Disease Clinics, edited by Michael S. Saag, MD and Henry Masur, MD, is devoted to HIV/AIDS. This issue will cover global epidemiology; testing, staging, and evaluation; linkage to care, retention in care; antiretroviral therapy: current drugs, when to start, what to start, failure; update on opportunistic infections; HIV co-morbidities; and co-infection Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.