The past few years have witnessed an explosive increase in our collective knowledge of the biology of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Researchers have acquired new understanding of the virus's biochemistry, molecular biology, pathogenesis, genetics, and immunobiology. Resulting therapeutic advances have significantly prolonged the lives of thousands. Yet, the need to develop better therapies is ever more acute and--given the virus's continued spread through the human population--the need for an effective vaccine is urgent.

These goals can be accomplished only through the experienced synthesis of information from the many disciplines participating in HIV research and through the insights of new investigators. This volume is designed to lower the barriers imposed on investigators by the sheer volume of available information--information that often can be found only in far-flung and specialized journals. It provides, in a single resource, an in-depth overview of the diverse areas that constitute HIV research. The result is a broad introduction for students and researchers new to the field as well as an integrated overview for researchers specialized in particular areas of HIV investigation. The volume will also benefit those seeking technical understanding of the virus's biology, including physicians treating HIV-infected patients.

Each chapter is a comprehensive presentation of one area of current AIDS research--including work on the virus life cycle, epidemiology, genetics, protease and reverse transcriptase inhibitors, receptor and co-receptor interactions, therapeutic targets, clinical treatment, immunobiology, and vaccines--written by a leading researcher in that area. The contributors are Jon P. Anderson, Jan Balzarini, Elana Cherry, Thomas J. Coates, Chris Collins, Jon H. Condra, Mark B. Feinberg, Richard B. Gaynor, Matthias Gotte, Daria J. Hazuda, Spyros Kalams, Nathaniel R. Landau, Gerald H. Learn, Norman L. Letvin, James I. Mullins, Willscott E. Naugler, David Nickle, Matthew Rain, Allen G. Rodrigo, Daniel Shriner, Shalom Spira, Mario Stevenson, Todd Summers, Catherine Ulich, Joseph P. Vacca, Mark A. Wainberg, Bruce D. Walker, and Yang Wang."

'I read the book in one go. I laughed and cried like a baby, and was transported back to a time of innocence, clouded by the enormity of the harsh reality . . . Just amazing' CATHERINE ZETA JONES 'As it happens, I was also a Jill in the eighties - but not half as good a Jill as real Jill' DAWN FRENCH 'Jill met the crisis head on . . . She held the hands of so many men. She lost them, and remembered them, and somehow kept going' RUSSELL T DAVIES A heartbreaking, life-affirming memoir of love, loss and cabaret through the AIDS crisis, from IT'S A SIN's Jill Nalder When Jill Nalder arrived at drama school in London in the early 1980s, she was ready for her life to begin. With her band of best friends - of which many were young, talented gay men with big dreams of their own - she grabbed London by the horns: partying with drag queens at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, hosting cabarets at her glamorous flat, flitting across town to any jobs she could get. But soon rumours were spreading from America about a frightening illness being dubbed the 'gay flu', and Jill and her friends now found their formerly carefree existence under threat. In this moving memoir, IT'S A SIN's Jill Nalder tells the true story of her and her friends' lives during the AIDS crisis -- juggling a busy West End career while campaigning for AIDS awareness and research, educating herself and caring for the sick. Most of all, she shines a light on those who were stigmatised and shamed, and remembers those brave and beautiful boys who were lost too soon. 'Thank God for people like [Jill] . . . I cannot recommend this book highly enough' MICHAEL BALL 'An engaging, moving account' TIMES SATURDAY REVIEW 'Simultaneously devastating and uplifting' GRAZIA 'Engrossing, heart-breaking and inspiring' MATT CAIN

"Randy Shilts and Laurie Garrett told the story of the HIV/AIDS epidemic through the late 1980s and the early 1990s, respectively. Now journalist-historian-activist Emily Bass tells the story of US engagement in HIV/AIDS control in sub-Saharan Africa. There is far to go on the path, but Bass tells us how far we've come." -Sten H. Vermund, professor and dean, Yale School of Public Health With his 2003 announcement of a program known as PEPFAR, George W. Bush launched an astonishingly successful American war against a global pandemic. PEPFAR played a key role in slashing HIV cases and AIDS deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, leading to the brink of epidemic control. Resilient in the face of flatlined funding and political headwinds, PEPFAR is America's singular example of how to fight long-term plague-and win. To End a Plague is not merely the definitive history of this extraordinary program; it traces the lives of the activists who first impelled President Bush to take action, and later sought to prevent AIDS deaths at the whims of American politics. Moving from raucous street protests to the marbled halls of Washington and the clinics and homes where Ugandan people living with HIV fight to survive, it reveals an America that was once capable of real and meaningful change-and illuminates imperatives for future pandemic wars. Exhaustively researched and vividly written, this is the true story of an American moonshot.

Like other dangerous but pleasurable activities, such as downhill skiing and mountain climbing, engaging in unprotected sex implicitly involves the weighing of costs and benefits. Recognizing that the transmission of the AIDS virus is a consequence of personal choices - often rational and informed - to engage in risky conduct, the authors employ the tools of economic analysis to reassess the orthodox approach to AIDS by public health specialists. Standard predictions of the spread of AIDS, the authors argue, are questionable because they ignore rational behavioral responses to the risk of infection. For the same reason, customary recommended public health measures, such as extensive testing for the AIDS virus, not only may be ineffective in controlling the spread of the disease but may actually cause it to spread more rapidly. The authors examine regulatory measures and proposals such as mandatory testing, criminal punishments, and immigration controls, as well as the subsidization of AIDS education and medical research, the social and fiscal costs of AIDS, the political economy of the government's response, and the interrelation of AIDS and fertility risk. Neither liberal nor conservative, yet on the whole skeptical about governmental involvement in the epidemic, this book is certain to be controversial, but its injection of hard-headed economic thinking into the AIDS debate is long overdue. Although Private Choices and Public Health is accessible to the interested general reader, it will also capture the attention of economists - especially those involved in health issues - epidemiologists, public health officials, and specialists in sexual behavior and drug addiction.