The face of AIDS at the end of the twentieth century is just as likely to belong to the homeless, the drug users, the poor and forgotten members of society as it is to gay men. Invisible to much of society and without the resources (political, emotional, and financial) to get help, these are the patients who end their days at the Spellman Center at St. Clare's Hospital in New York's Hell's Kitchen. But even in this carkest circumstance, in Spellman's chaotic and filthy hallways, redemption happens, life is reborn.

Daniel Baxter, who cared for the marginalized patients in conditions symbolic of their station in life, provides readers with an unprecedented profile of AIDS. Offering gritty details from his three-and-a-half years at Spellman, Baxter also passes along his memories of the hope that rises from AIDS's ashes -- the loving gesture where there was only hate, the lucidity where there was only confusion, the emotional connection where there was only alienation. Baxter tells the stories of patients living each day with grace in a place where people find a reason to care.

Today, AIDS has been indelibly etched in our consciousness. Yet it was less than twenty years ago that doctors confronted a sudden avalanche of strange, inexplicable, seemingly untreatable conditions that signaled the arrival of a devastating new disease. Bewildered, unprepared, and pushed to the limit of their diagnostic abilities, a select group of courageous physicians nevertheless persevered. This unique collective memoir tells their story. Based on interviews with nearly eighty doctors whose lives and careers have centered on the AIDS epidemic from the early 1980s to the present, this candid, emotionally textured account details the palpable anxiety in the medical profession as it experienced a rapid succession of cases for which there was no clinical history. The physicians interviewed chronicle the roller coaster experiences of hope and despair, as they applied newly developed, often unsuccessful therapies. Yet these physicians who chose to embrace the challenge confronted more than just the sense of therapeutic helplessness in dealing with a disease they could not conquer. They also faced the tough choices inherent in treating a controversial, sexually and intravenously transmitted illness as many colleagues simply walked away. Many describe being gripped by a sense of mission: by the moral imperative to treat the disempowered and despised. Nearly all describe a common purpose, an esprit de corps that bound them together in a terrible yet exhilarating war against an invisible enemy. This extraordinary oral history forms a landmark effort in the understanding of the AIDS crisis. Carefully collected and eloquently told, the doctors' narratives reveal the tenacity and unquenchable optimism that has paved the way for taming a 20th-century plague.

..". a coherent and fascinating social analysis of AIDS-related knowledge, examining the social facts of knowledge production and developments interior to communities of science." Medical Humanities Review

..". a multilayered, composite approach that involves multisited ethnographic research in different spheres of the collective responses to AIDS... " Choice

The response to AIDS from various groups in developing knowledge of and about this health crisis is the focus of this revealing work. Rio de Janeiro serves as an observation point for the study of the intersecting worlds of activism, clinical practice, and biomedical research."

This revised and updated edition of the pathbreaking report on the global AIDS epidemic outlines the strategic role that government must play in slowing the spread of HIV and mitigating the impact of AIDS. Drawing on the knowledge accumulated in the 17 years since the virus that causes AIDS was first identified, the report highlights policies that are most likely to be effective in managing the epidemic. These include early actions to minimize the spread of the virus, aiming preventive interventions at high risk groups, and evaluating measures that would assist households affected by AIDS according to the same standards applied to other health issues. This revised edition will a valuable resource for public health, policymakers, researchers, and anyone with an interest in this devastating global health crisis.

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.

In the mid-1980s public health officials in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia discovered that almost half of the haemophiliac population, as well as tens of thousands of blood transfusion recipients, had been infected with HIV-tainted blood. This book provides a comparative perspective on the political, legal, and social struggles that emerged in response to the HIV contamination of the blood supply of the industrialized world. It describes how eight nations responded to the first signs that AIDS might be transmitted through blood, how early efforts to secure the blood supply faltered, and what measures were ultimately implemented to resolve the contamination. The authors detail the remarkable mobilization of haemophiliacs who challenged the state, the medical establishment, and their own caregivers to seek recompense and justice. In the end, the blood establishments in almost all the advanced industrial nations were shaken. In Canada, the Red Cross was forced to withdraw from blood collection and distribution. In Japan, pharmaceutical firms that manufactured clotting factor agreed to massive compensation -- $500,000 per haemophiliac infected. In France, blood officials went to prison. Even in Denmark, where the number of infected haemophiliacs was relatively small, the struggle and litigation surrounding blood has resulted in the most protracted legal and administrative conflict in modern Danish history. Blood Feuds brings together chapters on the experiences of the United States, Japan, France, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Italy, and Australia with four comparative essays that shed light on the cultural, institutional, and economic dimensions of the HIV/blood disaster.

When a nursing facility for AIDS patients is planned for a city neighborhood, residents might be expected to respond, "Not in my backyard." But, as Jane Balin recounts in A Neighborhood Divided, when that community is known for its racial and ethnic diversity and liberal attitudes, public reaction becomes less predictable and in many ways more important to comprehend.An ethnographer who spent two years talking with inhabitants of a progressive neighborhood facing this prospect, Jane Balin demonstrates that the controversy divided residents in surprising ways. She discovered that those most strongly opposed to the facility lived furthest away, that families with young children were evenly represented in the two camps, and that African Americans followed a Jewish community leader in opposing the home while dismissing their own minister's support of it. By viewing each side sympathetically and allowing participants to express their true feelings about AIDS, the author invites readers to recognize their own anxieties over this sensitive issue. Balin's insightful work stresses the importance of uncovering the ideologies and fears of middle-class Americans in order to understand the range of responses that AIDS has provoked in our society. Its ethnographic approach expands the parameters of NIMBY research, offering a clearer picture of the multi-faceted anxieties that drive responses to AIDS at both the local and national levels.

When a nursing facility for AIDS patients is planned for a city neighborhood, residents might be expected to respond, "Not in my backyard." But, as Jane Balin recounts in A Neighborhood Divided, when that community is known for its racial and ethnic diversity and liberal attitudes, public reaction becomes less predictable and in many ways more important to comprehend.An ethnographer who spent two years talking with inhabitants of a progressive neighborhood facing this prospect, Jane Balin demonstrates that the controversy divided residents in surprising ways. She discovered that those most strongly opposed to the facility lived furthest away, that families with young children were evenly represented in the two camps, and that African Americans followed a Jewish community leader in opposing the home while dismissing their own minister's support of it. By viewing each side sympathetically and allowing participants to express their true feelings about AIDS, the author invites readers to recognize their own anxieties over this sensitive issue. Balin's insightful work stresses the importance of uncovering the ideologies and fears of middle-class Americans in order to understand the range of responses that AIDS has provoked in our society. Its ethnographic approach expands the parameters of NIMBY research, offering a clearer picture of the multi-faceted anxieties that drive responses to AIDS at both the local and national levels.

Written by a team of nationally recognized African American social work professionals with extensive and distinguished backgrounds of HIV/AIDS service, the book examines the crisis facing African American communities. The editors strive to convey to academics, researchers, and students the magnitude of the crisis and that individuals and organizations serving African Americans need to be able to respond to the service delivery needs this crisis brings.

The crisis is evident in the fact that by year 2000 fully 50% of all AIDS cases will be among African Americans--who only constitute 12% of the nation's population. This book serves as a wake-up call and is designed to stimulate discussion and planning for new models of service to all African Americans and HIV prevention, education, and treatment.

From the leading foundation for AIDS research, a comprehensive guide to help readers understand the complexities of HIV/AIDS and provide the latest information on combination therapy.

The AmFAR AIDS Handbook picks up where other books on AIDS leave off. It is the book you will turn to for a greater understanding of this disease, its causes and effects, and what new treatment options are being developed. How is HIV transmitted? When should antiviral treatment begin? Should treatment ever be stopped? How do protease inhibitors work? How does the disease differ in men, women, and children? This guide incorporates the latest research findings—including those on combination drug therapy—and answers all your questions in language comprehensible to nonscientists.

AmFAR (American Foundation for AIDS Research) is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of laboratory and clinical research on AIDS, AIDS prevention, and advocacy for sound AIDS-related public policy. It has given out over $140 million to more than 1700 research teams. Elizabeth Taylor is the founding national chairman and Dr. Mathilde Krim is the founding co-chair and chairman of the board.

Originally published in the "International Quarterly of Community Health Education", this work presents twenty-one chapters about the state of HIV/AIDS prevention programs in a global context.

Project Inform, the nation's leading community-based AIDS treatment information and advocacy organization, presents the first comprehensive, user-friendly guide to all the drugs most used by people with HIV/AIDS. This completely updated edition includes profiles of the newest and most recently approved drugs and laboratory tests, including protease inhibitors and viral load tests -- and in-depth discussions on how best to use these advances to create effective, long-term treatment strategies. Acclaimed for its accurate but nontechnical language, the handbook is easily accessible by way of an extensive master index. Features include:

• Drugs listed by brand or trade name, generic, popular, scientific and experiemental code name, for quick identification under any known name -- along with a full-color photo insert showing every drug listed
• Drugs grouped together by types of treatment: antiviral, anticancer, antifungal, experimental, immune-based therapy, psychoactive and more
• Treatment strategies for delaying or overcoming drug resistance, and achieving longterm success
• Side effects and drug interactions, possible reactions, and warnings
• An extensive glossary of HIV/AIDS related terms, clearly and concisely defined
• Unique indications for HIV treatment for children, women (with special cautions during pregnancy) and for the elderly
• Essential information on choosing a doctor, clinical trials, avoiding medical scams, nutritional strategies, assistance programs, buyers' clubs, hotline numbers including Project Inform's HIV/AIDS National Treatment Hotline (800-822-7422 or 415-558-9051), and much more.

The HIV Drug Book is written expressly for people with HIV/AIDS and their caregivers, friends and family members, and will be invaluable to physicians who must struggle with the overwhelming demands of this rapidly changing field.

Choosing Unsafe Sex focuses on the ways in which condom refusal and beliefs regarding HIV testing reflect women's hopes for their relationships and their desires to preserve status and self-esteem. Many of the inner-city women who participated in Dr. Sobo's research were seriously involved with one man, and they had heavy emotional and social investments in believing or maintaining that their partners were faithful to them. Uninvolved women had similarly heavy investments in their abilities to identify or choose potential partners who were HIV-negative. Women did not see themselves as being at risk for HIV infection, and so they saw no need for condoms. But they did recommend that other women, whom they saw as quite likely to be involved with sexually unfaithful men, use them.

With the startling blend of satiric wit, pathos, and heroism found in his acclaimed and iconoclastic novels, Feinberg--who died in 1994 at the age of 37--charts a harrowing journey down that "HIV highway to hell". "This is AIDS literature for a new generation--funny, impertinent, sexy, and enlightening".--The Advocate.

"Unstable Frontiers "was first published in 1994. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

"John Erni's heartfelt and insightful book is a valuable contribution to the study of the cultural politics of AIDS."-Jeff Nunokawa Princeton University

The "cure" for AIDS: The search goes on, keeping pace with our belief that AIDS is incurable. How such a seeming paradox works-and how it may well work against the proper treatment of the disease-is the subject of Unstable Frontiers, a probing, critical look at the cultural politics behind the quest for a cure for AIDS.

This massive commercial and scientific project, John Erni suggests, actually hinges on our contradictory definitions of the disease as curable and incurable at the same time. Drawing on diverse sources, from popular media to medical literature to cultural theory, he shows how the dual discourse of curability/incurability frames the way we think about and act on issues of medical treatment for AIDS. His work makes a major advance in our understanding of--and, perhaps, humane response to--a national crisis.

In his critique of the logic and fantasies underlying the double definition of AIDS, Erni explores a broad range of issues: the scientific paradigm used to develop AZT; the politics of alternative treatment practices, of clinical drug trials, and of AIDS activism; and the notions of time and temporality operating in AIDS treatment science. He also addresses the problematic popular themes, such as "AIDS is invariably fatal" and "Knowledge = Cure."

Unique in its approach to a social and political issue still in the making, the book reveals how AIDS has challenged technomedicine's historical position of authority-and in doing so, recasts this challenge in a powerful and ultimately hopeful way.

John Nguyet Erni is assistant professor of communication at the University of New Hampshire. He has published essays on AIDS and is currently working on a book about AIDS in Thailand.

Like a time bomb ticking away, hypertension builds quietly, gradually, placing unbearable strain on the body until it explodes--in heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, arterial disease, even death. But the disease does not have to progress that way. Here, in the third volume of the highly acclaimed "Preventive Medicine Program," Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, one of the nations foremost experts in the field of preventive medicine, presents a medically sound, reassuringly simple program that help you lower you blood pressure--and keep it down, often without drugs. "Overcoming Hypertension" gives you:

--The latest facts on how cholesterol, cigarette smoking, obesity, and stress affect coronary risk levels.

--Your high blood pressure risk profile, with newly devised charts for men and women.

--A complete fitness program that lets you choose the sport that works for you. Plus a unique illustrated guide to aqua-aerobics.

--Tips on talking to your doctor that will help you become an active participant in your own recovery.

--A guide to anti-hypertensive drugs--the most up-to-date list of medications, their recommended daily doses, and ways to minimize side effects.

--Three distinct dietary programs, complete with menus, recipes, nutritional charts, healthy cooking tips, and much more.

--Take charge of your health and well-being with "Overcoming Hypertension."

"From the Paperback edition."

Camcorder AIDS activism is a prime example of a new form of political expression--an outburst of committed, low-budget, community-produced, political video work made possible by new accessible technologies. As Alexandra Juhasz looks at this phenomenon--why and how video has become the medium for so much AIDS activism--she also tries to make sense of the bigger picture: How is this work different from mainstream television? How does it alter what we think of the media's form and function? The result is an eloquent and vital assessment of the role media activism plays in the development of community identity and self-empowerment.
An AIDS videomaker herself, Juhasz writes from the standpoint of an AIDS activist and blends feminist film critique with her own experience. She offers a detailed description of alternative AIDS video, including her own work on the Women's AIDS Video Enterprise (WAVE). Along with WAVE, Juhasz discusses amateur video tapes of ACT UP demonstrations, safer sex videos produced by Gay Men's Health Crisis, public access programming, and PBS documentaries, as well as network television productions.
From its close-up look at camcorder AIDS activism to its critical account of mainstream representations, AIDS TV offers a better understanding of the media, politics, identity, and community in the face of AIDS. It will challenge and encourage those who hope to change the course of this crisis both in the 'real world' and in the world of representation.

For gay men who are HIV-negative in a community devastated by AIDS, survival may be a matter of grief, guilt, anxiety, and isolation. In the Shadow of the Epidemic is a passionate and intimate look at the emotional and psychological impact of AIDS on the lives of the survivors of the epidemic, those who must face on a regular basis the death of friends and, in some cases, the decimation of their communities. Drawing upon his own experience as a clinical psychologist and a decade-long involvement with AIDS/HIV issues, Walt Odets explores the largely unrecognized matters of denial, depression, and identity that mark the experience of uninfected gay men.
Odets calls attention to the dire need to address issues that are affecting HIV-negative individuals--from concerns about sexuality and relations with those who are HIV-positive to universal questions about the nature and meaning of survival in the midst of disease. He argues that such action, while explicitly not directing attention away from the needs of those with AIDS, is essential to the human and biological well-being of gay communities. In the immensely powerful firsthand words of gay men living in a semiprivate holocaust, the need for a broader, compassionate approach to all of the AIDS epidemic's victims becomes clear. In the Shadow of the Epidemic is a pathbreaking first step toward meeting that need.

This book presents the frightening story behind one of the most ominous trends in contemporary America. AIDS in adolescents is increasing at alarming rates yet teen access to HIV prevention and treatment services is limited and uneven. It seems that apathy and risk denial are major problems in developing meaningful HIV prevention programs. This book is based on excerpted materials from a report of Congress dealing with AIDS augmented with an extensive subject index for easy access and a bibliography especially compiled for this edition.

"HIV alters the lives of anyone that it touches, whether they are gay or straight. This book looks at all of the aspects of how HIV/AIDS has altered the lives of those it touches. . . . The titles of the 12 chapters give an excellent overview of what is covered in these extremely well-written reports. . . . This is a must-read book for everyone. It should be in all libraries, including school libraries. Young adolescents who are facing the problem of coming out would benefit from this book." --AIDS Book Review Journal Hit hard by the AIDS epidemic in the United States and in much of Europe, the gay and lesbian community has been forced to examine existing notions of what it means to belong to a community based on sexual orientation. The editors of this second volume in the annual series Psychological Perspectives on Lesbian and Gay Issues have collected a perceptive array of chapters that explore sexual behavior, personal identity, and community memberships of gay men and lesbian women. With the exception of a few, the chapters reflect study findings from AIDS-related research and include discussions of AIDS in large urban centers and in less populated settings outside of major AIDS epicenters. Focusing on underconsidered AIDS populations, the contributors explore specific topics concerning the AIDS epidemic among gay and bisexual men of color, lesbian women, and gay and lesbian youth. Accessible and sensitive, the book also examines relevant public policy, volunteerism, and long-term survival as important to AIDS awareness and education. AIDS, Identity, and Community is an appreciable resource for AIDS researchers and caregivers, mental health practitioners, social service professionals, behavioral and social science students, and any reader who seeks deeper insight into the complex and subtle areas of the lesbian and gay community in the AIDS era.

"Mommy, why can`t the doctors make you better?"..."You won`t be there, will you? Who`ll take care of me?"-Rachel, age 5 AIDS breaks the rules of dying. It strikes the young rather than the old, decimating families and devastating communities. It will leave as its legacy a generation of orphans-traumatized by multiple losses, isolation, stigma, and grief. By the turn of the century, more than a hundred thousand children and youth in the United States-and ten million worldwide-will lose their parents to AIDS.Written by professionals in medicine, law, social work, anthropology, psychiatry, and public policy, this volume is the first full-length look at the issues facing children whose parents and siblings are dying of AIDS: what children experience, how it affects them, how we can meet their emotional needs and help them find second families, how we counter the stigmas they face. Authors explore ways to promote resilience in these AIDS-affected children. Stories of the children and their caretakers, told in their own words, are woven throughout.Pioneering and practical, the book presents an action agenda and resource directory for our nation`s policymakers as well as for parents and those who work with children in both formal and informal settings. This book is produced in conjunction with a video, Mommy, Who`ll Take Care of Me? Forgotten Children of the AIDS Epidemic, which will be shown on PBS and is also available from Yale University Press.

Community based organizations assist participants in developing social skills and familiar language for negotiating and practicing safer, non-risky behaviors. AIDS education and awareness is best achieved in local community groups through the use of interactive group sharing and non-professional language. Supportive and informed mutual aid can be extended through community based organizations and can alleviate the psychological effects of isolation, homophobia, abandonment, and political disinterest created by society at large. AIDS therapy and prevention is best accomplished in settings that encourage one-to-one communication and compassion. The seventeen authors of this masterful compilation of AIDS research and policy make a strong case for community organizations as valiant warriors in one of this century's most threatening epidemics against humanity.

The authors of The Essential AIDS Fact Book suggest ways to control the HIV virus while more effective treatments are being developed. Sections include HIV Antibody Testing; Obtaining Treatment; Health Care Strategies; Drugs that Help; Living with HIV; Managing Complications; and more.

This NIH-supported study of HIV's physical and psychosocial impacts offers both practical and inspiring accounts of how individuals living with HIV respond and cope with the disease and its progressive stages and impacts. The longitudinal approach of the research and the rich resources offered by extensive interviews with the persons with HIV and those closest to them avail the reader of insights and responses that should improve others' coping and caring abilities. The author's professional experience and extensive research informs the work throughout and fashions a remarkable and moving synthesis of the themes that will help those living with AIDS as well as all who relate to them. From the first awareness of infection to coping with bereavement, this book honestly, sensitively, and substantively addresses the essential concerns that any and all who are touched by the HIV pandemic must reflect on.

This is the story of ten courageous homosexuals suffering from AIDS, who volunteered for an extraordinary experiment, under the guidance of world-renowned macrobiotics expert Michio Kushi. The Way of Hope chronicles their miraculous experience, and provides AIDS sufferers and caregivers with detailed information about this drug-free, proven regimen.