A virus is a small infectious agent that replicates within living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea. Today, around 5,000 viruses have been reported in detail, although there are potentially millions. Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most abundant type of biological entity. The study of viruses is known as virology, a sub-speciality of microbiology. "Virology" has two volumes. Volume 1 mainly discusses the latest research related to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

Chapter 1 explores HIV epidemics throughout the world, examining transitions from injected related transmission to heterosexual transmission of the HIV virus. The authors explain factors that influence the transitions in countries with high prevalence HIV infection among their injecting drug use populations.

Chapter 2 discusses the association between HIV and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). In the current post-combination antiretroviral therapy era, HL ranks among the most frequent non-AIDS defining cancers (NADCs) and is an emerging and challenging entity in sub-Saharan Africa.

Chapter 3 seeks to outline some PMTCT and child survival issues pertinent to resource limited settings that are to be considered in achieving the WHO strategic plan of reduction of pediatric HIV infection by 2015.

Chapter 4 reviews the morphological, physiological and behavioral changes observed in corn earworm moths, (Helicoverpa zea) infected with the sexually transmitted, sterilizing virus HzNV-2. These pathological effects as well as viral persistence and genes responsible for these features of the virus are presented along with the potential HzNV-2 holds for use in controlling this agriculturally important insect pest.

Chapter 5 describes the main features of lentivirus derived vectors and the results obtained in the transduction of the airway epithelium in "in vitro" and "in vivo" models as well as their usefulness in the stem cells field. The primary focus of this chapter is on the main applications of lentiviral vectors relative to the gene therapy of respiratory diseases.

Chapter 6 characterizes the anti-HIV-1 response by looking at the ability of IFNbeta-induced genes to restrict HIV-1 particle production. The authors identified a potential novel HIV-1 restriction factor called HECT and RLD domain containing E3 ubiquitin protein ligase 5 (HERC5) that targets a unique late stage of HIV-1 replication.

Chapter 7 summarizes seminal findings that have revealed dual implication of the RNAi machinery in virus biology and discusses their implications for cell biology.

In Chapter 8, a novel RNA-based immune system against viruses is being established, which has emerged as a fundamental regulator of potent antiviral defense system. The mechanism for Dicer pathway is presented, which would be a future goal for many virus research scientists.

Chapter 9 proposes an overview of the genetic diversity of Epstein-Baar virus Latent Membrane Protein 1 (LMP1) and provides a new classification system of LMP1 variants based on selected polymorphisms and functional features.

Chapter 10 reviews our current knowledge of the effect of pathogen infection on thymic physiology.

Most of the HIV/AIDS caregivers in Kenya live in various parts of the country and share many of the trials and tribulations associated with providing care to someone suffering from a terminal illness. Some have been forced into the role due to the death of their love one, while others may have voluntarily taken on the responsibility on a firm belief that the care they provide will make a difference. The experiences shared in this book capture some of day-to-day political, social, economic, cultural challenges and obstacles encountered by the HIV/AIDS caregivers in Nairobi, Kenya. Caregiver challenges are reviewed and recommendations are offered on the way forward. It also explores the role of the church and international social work in addressing international issues. ___________________________________ Dr Charnetta Gadling-Cole is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Sociology and Social Work. She holds an appointment as a Scientist in the Center on Aging and a Scholar in the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center. Her research interest is in the areas of gerontology, care-giving and international social work. Dr. Sandra Edmonds Crewe is the Director of the Multidisciplinary Center for Social Gerontology at Howard University, Washington, DC. She is also associate Dean for academic & student affairs and equally serves as a member of the faculty of the School of Social Work's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Crewe's primary research interests are in the areas of aging, care-giving, and kinship care. Professor Mildred C. Joyner is Chair of the Undergraduate Social Work Department at West Chester University. Professor Joyner currently also serves as the President of the Council on Social Work Education. She is equally a member of the CSWE Gero-Ed Center (gerontological education) as well as a member of the National Association of Social Workers. Her research interests include child abuse, diversity issues and gerontology.

A Cure Too Far takes the reader back to the bleak time in Africa when doctors stood by helplessly and watched in horror as their distraught patients were hijacked by a ragtag army of cocky healers. It describes an obstacle-strewn struggle to stop peddlers of fake AIDS drugs and other detractors while trying to find a scientifically proven solution to alleviate the carnage. This story is informed by incredible personal accounts of individuals who played different roles in the war for survival, and of those who found the agony too much to bear, as the relentless scourge ripped apart thousands of years of cultural practices. Even when hope appeared in January 2003, through the President's Emergancy Programme for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a devastating financial crunch hit, threatening to undo all that had been achieved

This book explains what HIV/AIDS is and how to take good care of yourself in order to rebuild your immune system, to prevent opportunist infections and to stay healthy despite your status. As you know, HIV is just a chronic disease and it may be very well controlled like other chronic diseases are.

It's been likened to a plague, but AIDS was never just a health crisis. The second of a series on grieving the death of a friend, Grief and AIDS: Thirty Years of Burying Our Friends, revisits a time when people with AIDS were also victims of bigotry and discrimination. In stories about Ryan White, ACT UP, the Names Project, red ribbons and more, you'll learn why friends made all the difference: not just caregiving or memorializing, but changing the way society confronts the medical establishment and government to demand action.

The Confessions and Diaries of a New York Veteran of the Stonewall Inn Raid of June 28, 1969 is a true story which chronicles the life of one of the oldest survival of the historic raid and riots at this Gay Dancing Bar Forty-two years ago. This was the beginning of the Gay Rights Movement, and the Gay Revolution when Gays resisted Police arrests and assaults. A year later, Gay Demonstrators celebrated the anniversary of the riots with the first Gay Pride March by, openly, walking from Greenwich Village to the Sheep Meadows in Central Park. The founders of the Gay Liberation Front and the LGBT Communities united to sponsored a Gay Rights Parade annually in June to commemorate this momentous event. This was the first instance in American History when people in the homosexual community fought back against a governmental system that persecuted the Gay minorities, who have since become the defining force behind this event and, who is credited for the beginning of the Gay Uprising and Revolution in the United States and around the World.

The Deep South has seen a 36 percent increase in AIDS cases while the rest of the nation has seen a 2 percent decline. Many of the underlying reasons for the disease's continued spread in the region-ignorance about HIV, reluctance to get tested, non-adherence to treatment protocols, resistance to behavioural changes-remain unaddressed by policymakers. In this extensively revised second edition, Kathryn Whetten and Brian Wells Pence present a rich discussion of twenty-five ethnographic life stories of people living with HIV in the South. Most importantly, they incorporate research from their recent quantitative study, "Coping with HIV/AIDS in the Southeast" (CHASE), which includes 611 HIV-positive patients from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. This new edition continues to bring the participants' voices to life while highlighting how the CHASE study confirmed many of the themes that originally emerged from the life histories. This is the first cohesive compilation of up-to-date evidence on the unique and difficult aspects of living with HIV in the Deep South.

This volume presents an integrated epidemiologic, social, and economic analysis of the global epidemics of HIV among sex workers in low- and middle-income countries. The book provides a comprehensive review and synthesis of the available public health and social science data to characterize the nature, scope, and complexities of these epidemics. A community empowerment-based approach to HIV prevention, treatment, and care is outlined and demonstrated to be cost-effective across multiple settings, with a significant projected impact on HIV incidence among sex workers and transmission dynamics overall. The Global HIV Epidemics among Sex Workers seeks to assist governments, public health implementing agencies, donors, and sex worker communities to better understand and respond to the epidemics among a population facing heightened social and structural vulnerabilities to HIV. The book combines a systematic review of the global epidemiology of HIV among sex workers and in-depth case studies of the epidemiology, policy and programmatic responses and surrounding social contexts for HIV prevention, care and treatment in eight countries. The authors employ mathematical modelling and cost-effectiveness analysis to assess the potential country-level impact of a community empowerment-based approach to HIV prevention, treatment, and care among sex workers when taken to scale in four countries representing diverse sociopolitical contexts and HIV epidemics: Brazil, Kenya, Thailand, and Ukraine. In each setting, greater investment in prevention, treatment, and care for sex workers is shown to significantly reduce HIV. Together these findings underline the urgency of further global investment in comprehensive, human rights-based responses to HIV among sex workers.

Investing in Communities Achieves Results fills an important gap in the global knowledge on community level results and resources related to HIV and AIDS. While communities, in spite of their limited resources, have played a key role in the HIV/AIDS response, their contributions and innovative approaches to prevention, treatment, care, and support have not always been the focus of systematic and rigorous evaluations. To address this deficit, a series of studies-including evaluations in Burkina Faso, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Zimbabwe-were undertaken over a three-year period (early 2009 to early 2012), helping to build a robust pool of evidence on the effects of community-based activities and programmes. A unique feature of this multicountry evaluation was the collaboration between two international organisations (the World Bank and the United Kingdom's Department for International Development) and a major civil society network (the U.K. Consortium on AIDS and International Development). Other attributes that contributed to the successful outcome were the sustained consultation process with civil society and stakeholders at the local, national, and global levels, and the collaboration among high-calibre, multi-disciplinary researcher teams. The book's findings are promising. At varying levels, depending on the country context, the HIV response in communities was shown to improve knowledge and behaviour and increase the use of health services- and even decrease HIV incidence. Evidence on social transformation was more mixed, with community groups found to be effective only in some settings. Each study in the evaluation provides a partial view of how communities shape the local response; however, taken together they constitute a significant pool of rigorous evidence on the contributions of communities, community groups, and civil society to the national and global HIV and AIDS response. The studies suggest that communities have produced significant results at the local level, which contribute to outcomes at the national level.

People who inject drugs (PWID) are at higher risk for acquiring HIV infection than the general population in many countries. Injecting drug use is present in 148 countries including a wide array of low and middle income countries where HIV incidence is growing in recent years - even as it declines elsewhere. This study was undertaken as the third of a series of three economic analyses examining the global epidemics of HIV/AIDS in vulnerable populations. Informed by a critical review of epidemiological evidence and the most recent analyses of intervention efficacy, this work modelled the costs and impact of addressing the needs of PWID at scale in various epidemic contexts. These particular research questions were addressed: What are the modelled epidemic impact and costs of implementing a minimum adaptable package of evidence-based and human rights affirming services for prevention, treatment, and care of HIV/AIDS in PWID in globally representative epidemic scenarios? What are the estimated returns on investment and costs of inaction of addressing these epidemics? Taken together, the findings indicate: Service coverage levels for ART and key harm reduction interventions with HIV prevention benefits are generally inadequate. Allocative decisions for HIV/AIDS should better reflect the burden of transmission and disease. HIV transmission dynamics can be significantly reduced by scaling up a package of four key harm reduction interventions specific to PWID: Needle and Syringe Programs, Medically Assisted Therapy and HIV Counseling and Testing, as well as proportionate access in ART scale-up. Evidence-based and effective interventions for PWID should be funded and implemented - in the context of HIV prevention services for the general population, such as condom promotion. Interventions for PWID - particularly in combination with treatment services - are cost effective or highly cost effective investment choices across the breadth of the global epidemic. The study presents compelling evidence for the most cost-effective approaches to minimising the transmission and impacts of HIV in this key population. This evidence may guide both operational design and policy dialogue in World Bank operations.

This document is to help the CARE Act1 community conduct needs assessments so that they can better plan on how to use CARE Act resources to fill gaps in care. It describes the process of needs assessment and provides "how-to" information about tasks ranging from developing an epidemiologic profile to estimating the need for services. The Guide provides: Legislative requirements and HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) expectations for each CARE Act title; Types of needs assessment information; Steps in conducting a comprehensive needs assessment; Practical guidance on how to: Prepare an epidemiologic profile; Collect and use surrogate markers for HIV/AIDS, such as co-morbidity data; Collect information from people living with HIV disease (PLWH) and other community representatives through focus groups, surveys, interviews, and community forums; Prepare a resource inventory; Conduct an assessment of provider capacity/capability, and Assess service needs. Ways to use needs assessment results in decision making; The experiences of CARE Act Titles I, II, III, and IV grantees nationwide, and; Information on special HAB needs assessment initiatives (i.e., preparing a joint epidemiologic profile with an HIV prevention community planning body, developing a framework for estimating unmet need). The Needs Assessment Guide was designed for use by all CARE Act titles and can provide a common approach to needs assessment that facilitates cross-title collaboration. Input on its content was provided by HAB staff and a Field Review Group. Title I and Title II needs assessments typically involve planning bodies-Title I HIV services planning councils and Title II regional consortia or Statewide planning entities. Therefore, the roles of planning bodies are described throughout. For Title III or Title IV, the planning body may be an agency's planning committee or executive committee. Many programs also establish advisory bodies that include community and PLWH participation-or there may be no planning body involvement.

People with HIV/AIDS can live longer, healthier lives because of advances in treatment of HIV infection. However, longer lives are associated with increased prevalence of 1) adverse effects of HIV infection, 2) adverse effects of the drugs used to treat HIV, and 3) concurrent medical conditions that would occur in the absence of HIV. These long-term complications have put HIV infection in the realm of chronic diseases rather than of infectious diseases, which usually respond to short-term clinical interventions. Effective management of chronic diseases in the primary care setting requires the coordination of interventions that occur at the level of the clinical services, the community supports for those clinical services, and the individual patient. While clinical services begin in the primary care clinic, community supports are needed, and the patient must be engaged to enhance self-management. The coordinated interventions together contribute to the desired clinical outcomes. The Chronic Care Model, which is used in the design and quality improvement activities of clinical services, conceptualizes how these factors impact the clinical outcome of chronic disease management. This book addresses several important aspects of HIV/AIDS care and treatment in a concise, accessible format; it is not meant to be a comprehensive reference book. Recommended references and citations are provided for the reader to be able to access in-depth information on topics that are particularly important and/or controversial. Appropriate use of antiretroviral drugs, treatment of opportunistic infections, symptom management, treatment of concurrent medical conditions, and other specific interventions to treat HIV disease and its complications are addressed. The format of this guide is designed to provide practical information for the common questions that arise in the care of patients with HIV infection. Recognizing the broader array of best practices that contribute to effective clinical outcomes among patients with a complex array of service needs, the authors also address patient evaluation, adherence, mental health, substance abuse, overall clinic management, and other factors that lead to improved patient outcomes according to the Chronic Care Model. Last, because the authors recognize the challenges of maintaining clinical practices in the face of rapidly changing and ever more complex treatment interventions, a chapter on sources for updated and in-depth clinical information is provided. Pediatric HIV/AIDS treatment is not addressed in this book.

Compelled by his own 2005 HIV diagnosis, journalist John-Manuel Andriote revisits his acclaimed chronicle of the AIDS epidemic in this updated and expanded edition of the University of Chicago Press 1999 hardcover original. Andriote examines the impact of AIDS on individuals and on the gay civil rights movement, from the coming-out revelry of the 1970s to the post-AIDS gay community of the twenty-first century's first decade. Victory Deferred looks at how AIDS has changed both individual lives and national organizations. It tells the story of how a health crisis pushed a disjointed jumble of local activists to become a national visible and politically powerful civil rights movement, a full-fledged minority group challenging the authority of some of the nation's most powerful institutions. Based on hundreds of interviews with those at the forefront of the medical, political, cultural, civic, and national responses to the epidemic, Victory Deferred artfully blends personal narratives with institutional histories and organizational politics to show how AIDS forced gay men from their closets and ghettos into the hallways of power to lobby and into the streets to protest.

This document is provided as an information resource for physicians and other health care professionals to guide them in the appropriate treatment of patients with HIV/AIDS. Recommendations for care and treatment change rapidly, and opinions can be controversial; therefore, physicians and other health care professionals are encouraged to consult other sources, especially manufacturers' package inserts, and confirm the information contained in these tables. The individual physician or other health care professional should use his/her best medical judgment in determining appropriate patient care or treatment because no single reference or service can take the place of medical training, education, and experience. Determination of appropriate treatment is the responsibility of the treating physician

Throughout history, communicable diseases have devastated armies and weakened the capacity of state institutions to perform core security functions. Today, the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa has prompted many of the affected countries to initiate policies aimed at addressing its impact on their armed forces, police, and prisons. This volume explores the dynamics of how the security sectors of selected African states have responded to the complex and multifaceted challenges of HIV/AIDS.

Current and impending African HIV/AIDS policies address a range of security-related issues:

- The role of peacekeepers in the spread or control of HIV

- The dilemma of public health (the need to control HIV) versus human rights (protection against mandatory medical testing) needs

- The gender dimensions of HIV in the armed forces

- The impact of HIV on the police and prisons

The chapters in "HIV/AIDS and the Security Sector in Africa" are written by African practitioners, including commissioned officers who are currently serving in the armed forces, medical officers and nurses working in the military, and African policy and academic experts. While the book does not comprehensively address all aspects of the impact of HIV/AIDS on the security sector, the contributors nonetheless highlight the potentials and limits of existing policies.

Journeys Through Darkness is a biography which tells the story of AIDS and related blindness through AIDS warrior and long-term survivor, award-winning legally blind photographer Kurt Weston. The book includes several of his photographs that match the powerful prose of Alina Oswald.

Journeys Through Darkness is a biography which tells the story of AIDS and related blindness through AIDS warrior and long-term survivor, award-winning legally blind photographer Kurt Weston. The book includes several of his photographs that match the powerful prose of Alina Oswald.

Written by three experts with extensive experience helping people with HIV/AIDS, this trusted resource is the complete guide to better physical and emotional health for women living with HIV or AIDS. It covers the full range of health and emotional issues faced by people with HIV while also addressing topics of special interest to women, including gynecologic disorders, reproductive choices, contraception, and pregnancy. The world of HIV/AIDS diagnosis and therapy is changing dramatically. At-home testing is now available, people exposed to the virus may be able to get immediate treatment, and the number of dominant classes of HIV treatment has increased from four to six. This new edition of "A Woman's Guide to Living with HIV Infection" includes the latest information on diagnosis and treatments as well as recent findings about pregnancy and HIV, starting treatments when you have HIV-related complications, liver health and hepatitis, and sexual health.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services has as its mission the improvement of access to health care and services for underserved and vulnerable populations. HRSA accomplishes this mission by partnering with community-based organizations in the delivery of health and social services, with academic health centers in the education of health professionals, and with State and local health departments in the areas of prevention, public health promotion and health care delivery. Improved quality of care and quality of life are the goals of the programs and initiatives of HRSA. To that end HRSA's HIV/AIDS Bureau has embarked on the publication of A Clinical Guide to Supportive and Palliative Care for HIV/AIDS. Through the work of visionaries in the fields of HIV/AIDS and palliative care, we conclude that excellent HIV care can be provided by integrating the principles and framework of palliative care into the delivery of care and services to people living with HIV/AIDS, throughout the continuum of illness. This integration of services holds the promise of patient and family-centered care that is proactive in addressing the multitude of issues with which patients are challenged. With this volume we seek to expand the definition of palliative care and to realize palliative care's full potential to improve the quality of care and the quality of life of those living with HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS Bureau, through its Working Group on Palliative Care in HIV, has set forth the following working definition: Palliative care is patient- and family-centered care. It optimizes quality of life by active anticipation, prevention, and treatment of suffering. It emphasizes use of an interdisciplinary team approach throughout the continuum of illness, placing critical importance on the building of respectful and trusting relationships. Palliative care addresses physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual needs. It facilitates patient autonomy, access to information, and choice. Palliative care is complementary care, not alternative care, and therefore should not be provided only when disease-directed therapy fails or is unavailable. It is a mistake to adopt a palliative perspective and approach only at the last stages of illness. One need only reflect on the pain associated with receiving a first HIV diagnosis or upon the psychological and spiritual suffering that are the substrates of substance abuse and other behaviors exposing individuals to HIV, to realize the importance of using palliative care principles at all points along the course of this illness. Providers should focus their attention on comfort, relief of suffering, and quality of life throughout the course of HIV disease. The central role of medication adherence is not to be underestimated in stabilizing the course of disease, but other factors can be equally important in optimizing clinical outcomes. These factors include a wide range of hard-to-control socioeconomic as well as personal characteristics: an understanding of the disease process; empowerment in relation to personal health; a safe place to live; freedom from pain and distressing symptoms; adequate nutrition; treatment for substance abuse, depression and other mental illness; hope; adequate help of friends, family and other caregivers, especially when functional status is diminished and disease progression is ongoing. These challenges can be met successfully by using a palliative care framework to approach the patient, providers, caregivers, family, loved ones, and the health care system. This manual is organized to address the many aspects of palliative care that are key in caring for the person living with HIV and AIDS. A wealth of expertise and experience in the areas of HIV and palliative care has provided a unique document that expands the realms of both disciplines.

Few people realize that the familiar HIV/AIDS global statistics are actually estimates. For example, UNAIDS estimated that the Republic of South Africa (RSA) had 140,000 HIV/AIDS deaths in 1997. However, after tabulating all deaths for 1997, the Republic of South Africa attributed only 6,635 deaths to HIV/AIDS. Such discrepancies are rarely noted. The Republic of South Africa (RSA) stands as the exemplar of these discrepancies. It is reputed to have the world's largest AIDS epidemic with an estimated 5.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) in 2008. Such PLWH estimates, as with the estimates of HIV/AIDS deaths, are highly questionable. HIV/AIDS in South Africa: The Facts and the Fiction clarifies the reasons behind these discrepancies by describing two common misunderstandings of HIV infection that contribute to poor mathematical modeling outcomes. Fully referenced, HIV/AIDS in South Africa: The Facts and the Fiction presents and compares raw numerical data on: ? the tabulated number of HIV/AIDS deaths in the RSA; ? the number of AIDS cases detected by RSA disease surveillance systems; ? UNAIDS/WHO estimates for AIDS deaths in the RSA; and ? UNAIDS/WHO estimates for the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the RSA. The total cumulative numbers of HIV/AIDS cases in the United States and the cumulative totals for the continent of Africa are also presented for purposes of comparison, and to place the African and RSA data within appropriate epidemiological context. Overall, these data span from 1981 to 2009. Altogether, these data, plus additional information detailing the nature of HIV infection and heterosexual HIV transmission rates, explain why the hyperbolic mathematical estimates and HIV antibody test surveys the primary sources of HIV/AIDS data in Africa are simply implausible. Contents: 118 pages, 20 tables, several side boxes, and 240 references.

"The theory that AIDS originated in African monkeys arose from an incident of laboratory contamination." ? The scientific literature is clear: (1) New York City is the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic; (2) the theory that HIV came from monkeys is a fallacy; the theory that AIDS originated in African monkeys arose from an incident of laboratory contamination; and (3) the African AIDS epidemic-as-holocaust never manifested. "The first Africans diagnosed with AIDS were residents of Belgium." ? Fully referenced, based on a forensic review of over 3000 scientific and medical journal articles, this book redefines global concepts for the prevalence and distribution of HIV infection. For many readers, each page contains a revelation as the Author not only deconstructs many myths and misconceptions, but also describes how the current misconceptions arose. "The first documented case of international HIV transmission occurred between New York City and Copenhagen." ? This book redefines global concepts for the prevalence and distribution of HIV infection, and has powerful implications for HIV/AIDS funding, research prerogatives, and global health care interventions. Chris Jennings (Harvard, B.A., Biology 1976/77) excels at writing scientific books that fulfill the needs of professionals while rendering the science accessible to the average reader. His prior book, Understanding and Preventing AIDS: A Book for Everyone, was favorably reviewed by the New England Journal of Medicine ? adopted for staff education by Massachusetts General Hospital, the hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); and Walter Reed Army Medical Institute ? sold in medical bookstores ? purchased by innumerable city and state health agencies ? and utilized as a textbook at colleges, nursing schools, and public health schools. Contents: 218 pages, 20 tables, innumerable side boxes, and 500 references.

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Latinos now comprise 16% of the general population as they continue to be one of the fastest-growing populations in the United States. However, according to recent CDC data, Latinos also account for a disproportionately high number of total new AIDS cases. Rates of AIDS among U.S. Latinos are second only to African Americans, and about 3.5-times higher than for non-Hispanic Whites. Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS increases with ethnic and racial minority status that is so often conflated with socioeconomic status. Additional factors, such as gender, sexual orientation, and stigma, also increase vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and require us to think comprehensively about the unique structural-environmental, social and cultural factors that frame risk for HIV for U.S. Latinos.
This book, written by leading authorities on theory, research, and practice in preventing HIV with diverse Latino populations and communities, responds to the diminishing returns of the behavioral model of HIV risk by deconstructing the many social ecological contexts of risk within the Latino experience. Each of the chapters explores the most innovative thinking and original research on the prevention of HIV for a comprehensive span of subgroups and situations, including: preventing HIV in LGBT Latinos through community involvement and AIDS activism; in migrant laborers by scaling up community and cultural resources; in adolescent Latinas by facilitating communication with their mothers about sex; by decreasing the racism, homophobia, and poverty often experienced by Latino men who have sex with men; in transgender Latinas by decreasing familial, peer, and social rejection, and by providing structures of care at local, state, and national levels; and in Latinas by improving their economic autonomy as well as improving gender-equity ideologies among men.
This is a timely and urgently needed effort by the best researchers and interventionists in the field today. Latino-serving agencies and professionals, as well as the growing number of Latino-focused HIV prevention researchers, graduate students, and faculty, will find this an invaluable resource, reference, and guide.