This first extensive study of the practice of blood transfusion in Africa traces the history of one of the most important therapies in modern medicine from the period of colonial rule to independence and the AIDS epidemic. The introduction of transfusion held great promise for improving health, but like most new medical practices, transfusion needed to be adapted to the needs of sub-Saharan Africa, for which there was no analogous treatment in traditional African medicine.
This otherwise beneficent medical procedure also created a "royal road" for microorganisms, and thus played a central part in the emergence of human immune viruses in epidemic form. As with more developed health care systems, blood transfusion practices in sub-Saharan Africa were incapable of detecting the emergence of HIV. As a result, given the wide use of transfusion, it became an important pathway for the initial spread of AIDS. Yet African health officials were not without means to understand and respond to the new danger, thanks to forty years of experience and a framework of appreciating long-standing health risks. The response to this risk, detailed in this book, yields important insight into the history of epidemics and HIV/AIDS.
Drawing on research from colonial-era governments, European Red Cross societies, independent African governments, and directly from health officers themselves, this book is the only historical study of the practice of blood transfusion in Africa.

The AIDS epidemic soured the memory of the sexual revolution and gay liberation of the 1970s, and prominent politicians, commentators, and academics instructed gay men to forget the sexual cultures of the 1970s in order to ensure a healthy future. But without memory there can be no future, argue Christopher Castiglia and Christopher Reed in this exploration of the struggle over gay memory that marked the decades following the onset of AIDS. Challenging many of the assumptions behind first-wave queer theory, If Memory Serves offers a new perspective on the emergence of contemporary queer culture from the suppression and repression of gay memory. Drawing on a rich archive of videos, films, television shows, novels, monuments, paintings, and sculptures created in the wake of the epidemic, the authors reveal a resistance among critics to valuing-even recognizing-the inscription of gay memory in art, literature, popular culture, and the built environment. Castiglia and Reed explore such topics as the unacknowledged ways in which the popular sitcom Will and Grace circulated gay subcultural references to awaken a desire for belonging among young viewers; the post-traumatic (un)rememberings of queer theory; and the generation of "ideality politics" in the art of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, the film Chuck & Buck, and the independent video Video Remains. Inspired by Alasdair MacIntyre's insight that "the possession of a historical identity and the possession of a social identity coincide," Castiglia and Reed demonstrate that memory is crafted in response to inadequacies in the present-and therefore a constructive relation to the past is essential to the imagining of a new future.

In what circumstances and on what basis, should those who transmit serious diseases to their sexual partners be criminalised? In this new book Matthew Weait uses English case law as the basis of a more general and critical analysis of the response of the criminal courts to those who have been convicted of transmitting HIV during sex. Examining cases and engaging with the socio-cultural dimensions of HIV/AIDS and sexuality, he provides readers with an important insight into the way in which the criminal courts construct the concepts of harm, risk, causation, blame and responsibility. Taking into account the socio-cultural issues surrounding HIV/AIDS and their interaction with the law, Weait has written an excellent book for postgraduate and undergraduate law and criminology students studying criminal law theory, the trial process, offences against the person, and the politics of criminalisation. The book will also be of interest to health professionals working in the field of HIV/AIDS genito-urinary medicine who want to understand the issues that may face their clients and patients.

"Sullivan offers [a] profound, often beautiful appreciation of friendship. . . . [He can] fascinate us with the range and depth of his mind."--San Francisco Chronicle

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year  

"One of the great pleasures of this book lies in watching Sullivan's mind at work . . . [his essays] are filled with a passion and heat that most cultural criticism lacks." --Katie Roiphe, The Washington Post

When former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan publicly revealed his HIV positive status in 1996, he intended "to be among the first generation that survives this disease." In this new book, a powerful meditation on the spiritual effect AIDS has on friendship, love, sexuality, and American culture, we follow Sullivan on his path to survival.  

A practicing Catholic, Sullivan reflects on his faith in God, and expresses his bittersweet joy upon learning about new AIDS treatments that he believes led to the virus's recent transformation from a plague into a chronic illness. He revisits Freud to seek the origins of homosexuality and reviews the works of Aristotle, St. Augustine, and W. H. Auden to define friendship for a contemporary, post-plague world. Sullivan's last essay extols the virtues of friendship, elevating platonic love over the romantic, as he memorializes his best friend, who died of AIDS.  Intensely personal and passionately political, Sullivan's essays are not just about his own experiences but also a powerful testament to human resilience, faith, hope, and love.  

"Sullivan has found meaning in chaos. . . . With its paradoxical sense of beauty amid pain, Love Undetectable has something of the quality of a war memoir."  --The New York Times Book Review  

"On display here are all of the author's many strengths--compelling, poetic prose style, some keen observations on faith. . . . Sullivan offers a moving defense of the open gay male urban sexual culture and his participation in it."  --The Boston Globe

The most important public health problem of our time-AIDS-is also the most shrouded in myth and misinformation. To bring the facts out of the shadows of fear and hysteria, the first edition of Mobilizing against AIDS was published in 1986. This new edition, nearly double the size of the first, interprets the results of the latest research on the disease and possible methods of treatment. For the foreseeable future the vast majority of AIDS cases will occur among groups that have already experienced major losses: homosexual and bisexual men, intravenous drug abusers, people who received blood or blood products before techniques were developed to safeguard the blood supply, heterosexual partners of those at recognized risk of HIV infection, and infants born to infected mothers. Mobilizing against AIDS examines new data on the growth of the epidemic within these groups, as well as on successful and failed attempts to stop the spread of the disease. In addition, it explores the growing problem of AIDS among the urban poor. This new edition also presents up to date information on how the disease affects the body, including damage to immune cells, bone marrow cells, skin cells, and cells of the cervix and colon. It contains additional discussions of treatment (particularly drug therapy and prospects for a vaccine) and a searching examination of the implications of societal and individual stress caused by the epidemic. In summarizing the events that have taken place in the last few years, Eve K. Nichols has worked closely with the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences and other key players in the battle against AIDS. Maintaining the clear and nontechnical style that has been so widely acclaimed, Nichols has forged an extraordinarily thorough synthesis that carries an authoritative stamp, ensuring that this new edition will be an indispensable resource for everyone concerned with AIDS and its treatment.

A well-informed portrait, part social critique, part memoir, of sexual mores and homosexuality in provincial Mexico.

Should a physician with AIDS be required to inform his or her patients? Does a physician have an obligation to warn the partner who wants this fact kept secret? Should all newborns and pregnant women be screened for HIV? Should insurance companies be required to insure patients who test positive for the disease? Professionals and society at large are confronted by a wide range of complex ethical issues produced by the AIDS health crisis.

"AIDS and Ethics" is the first major collection of essays on the complex ethical issues created by the AIDS crisis. The nation's leading bioethics experts from the fields of law, medicine, philosophy, political science, religion, and social work present original and accessible essays. They address current controversial issues related to the tension between civil rights and public health, mandatory HIV testing, human subjects research, health care insurance, AIDS education, militant AIDS activism, the physician-patient relationship, issues of privacy, and legal issues. This important book will provide philosophical and practical guidelines to health care and human service professionals, policy makers, scholars, and others affected by the AIDS crisis.

Until now, there has been no one text that discusses the norms, beliefs, and behaviors that affect how societies respond to HIV/AIDS around the world. The Anthropology of AIDS synthesizes data from anthropology, psychology, sociology, biology, and medicine, and incorporates the author's more than two decades of work as a medical anthropologist, HIV test counselor, and sex therapist. Designed for use in a range of college courses, this volume combines a solid introduction to the epidemiology of HIV and AIDS with a wealth of material exploring the cross-cultural societal impact of the disease. Patricia Whelehan provides a broad overview of the epidemic since 1981, focusing on current social, cultural, political, and economic factors throughout the world. She brings a relativistic, comparative, and holistic approach to look at HIV/AIDS as both a pandemic and an intercultural health problem. She also explores the ethics and controversies surrounding HIV testing, treatment, and research in the United States and other specific societies, including Thailand, Brazil, and areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. Written in a clear, concise, and engaging tone, this timely and necessary text will prove an invaluable resource for instructors and undergraduates across many academic disciplines.

Le SIDA n'est qu'une maladie chronique parmi tant d'autres et il peut etre bien controle autant que les autres maladies chroniques le sont. La lecture de ce livre vous permettra d'avoir une idee Claire sur la maladie afin de la matriser.

Why is there so little HIV education at present directed towards bisexual men and women? This book offers a critical analysis of the issues in public health research and education that prevent adequate attention from being paid to bisexual realities. Addressing the implications of such limited knowledge, the authors raise important questions about the weaknesses of our current response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Through interviews with a variety of bisexual men and women, HIV Prevention and Bisexual Realities uncovers innovative, important directions to consider for more effective HIV prevention strategies. The authors' epistemological and methodological assessments of the current state of HIV/AIDS education will be indispensable for community health educators, policy makers, and those who study or work in public health.

Since the early days of the AIDS epidemic, many bizarre and dangerous hypotheses have been advanced as to 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 thatcould have been prevented – a tragedy of stunning proportion.

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 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.

The new edition of this successful handbook provides a balance of evidence-based information on Genitourinary Medicine (GUM), including HIV/AIDS. It provides high quality, digestible clinical detail and also practical information on the ever-increasing medico-legal, ethical, and procedural issues of growing importance when dealing with these complex topics. Designed primarily for the trainee in GUM, it is also a valuable reference and resource for the specialist physician, nurse, and other professionals working in the field of sexual health. The new edition remains relevant to those working in this field and features practical enhanced sections on contraception and genital dermatology written by specialist contributors, and information for general practitioners in order to provide services for STIs. The book consists of three easy-to-follow sections. The first section deals with routine management within GUM; medico-legal and ethical issues, the standard patient, special situations, and routine clinical and laboratory processes that include simple flow chart guidance on common clinical presentations. The second section details GUM conditions in a disease-orientated style, including STIs and also other genitourinary problems that may present. The third section on HIV provides a contemporary epidemiological overview of this infection, basic viral biology and pathogenesis, a disease-orientated description of conditions both directly related and opportunistic, and their management and data on special situations such as pregnancy. Finally guidance on commonly used abbreviations is shown together with a useful resource directory for staff. In essence this handbook provides a wealth of simple and easy to follow information on STIs and the principles of providing a service including administrative and medico-legal issues that are sometimes difficult to locate. This book will be of global use to all those with an interest in sexual health whatever their level of expertise and wherever they may practice.

This second edition provides up-to-date information on new drugs, new proven HIV prevention interventions, a new chapter on positive prevention, and current HIV epidemiology.

This definitive text covers all aspects of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, from basic science to medicine, sociology, economics and politics. It has been written by a highly respected team of South African HIV/AIDS experts and provides a thoroughly researched account of the epidemic in the region.

The book comprises seven sections, the first of which describes the evolving epidemic, presents the numbers behind the epidemic, and captures its nature in one of the worst affected parts of the world. This is followed by a section on the science of the virus, covering its structure and its diagnosis. HIV risk factors and prevention strategies, focal population groups and the impact of HIV/AIDS in all aspects of South African life are discussed in the next four sections. The final sections look at the treatment of HIV/AIDS, mathematical modeling to extrapolate the potential impact of treatment and finally a discussion of the future of HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

This text has been written at an accessible level for the general reader, undergraduate and postgraduate students, health care providers, researchers and policymakers in this field, as well as international scholars studying HIV/AIDS in Africa.

"The Deadly Ideas of Neoliberalism" explores the history of and current collision between two of the major global phenomena that have characterized the last 30 years: the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases of poverty and the ascendancy of neoliberal economic ideas. The book explains not only how IMF policies of restrictive spending have exacerbated public health problems in developing countries, in particular the HIV/AIDS crisis, but also how such issues cannot be resolved under these economic policies. It also suggests how mounting global frustration about this inability to adequately address HIV/AIDS will ultimately lead to challenges to the dominant neoliberal ideas, as other more effective economic ideas for increasing public spending are sought.

In stark, powerful terms, Rowden offers a unique and in-depth critique of development economics, the political economy dynamics of global foreign aid and health institutions, and how these seemingly abstract factors play out in the real world - from the highest levels of global institutions to African finance and health ministries to rural health outposts in the countryside of developing nations, and back again.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS or Aids) is a set of symptoms and infections resulting from the damage to the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This condition progressively reduces the effectiveness of the immune system and leaves individuals susceptible to opportunistic infections and tumours. HIV is transmitted through direct contact of a mucous membrane or the bloodstream with a bodily fluid containing HIV, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, pre-seminal fluid, and breast milk. This transmission can involve anal, vaginal or oral sex, blood transfusion, contaminated hypodermic needles, exchange between mother and baby during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding, or other exposure to one of the above bodily fluids. This book presents important research in the field from around the globe.

Aids and Local Government in South Africa studies the impact of HIV/AIDS on the political system of 12 local municipalities in South Africa. This exploratory study by democracy institute Idasa investigates the epidemic's effect on accountability, effectiveness and legitimacy amongst directly elected councillors, against a back-drop of extreme dissatisfaction with local government performance by historically disadvantaged South Africans.

AIDS (Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome) has become a major world-wide epidemic. AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By killing or damaging cells of the body's immune system, HIV progressively destroys the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers. People diagnosed with AIDS may get life-threatening diseases called opportunistic infections, which are caused by microbes such as viruses or bacteria that usually do not make healthy people sick. The term AIDS applies to the most advanced stages of HIV infection. During the past 10 years, however, researchers have developed drugs to fight both HIV infection and its associated infections and cancers. The first group of drugs used to treat HIV infection, called nucleoside reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors, interrupts an early stage of the virus making copies of itself. A second class of drugs for treating HIV infection is called protease inhibitors, which interrupt virus replication at a later step in its life cycle. Research is extremely active in all areas of HIV infection, including developing and testing preventive HIV vaccines and new treatments for HIV infection and AIDS - associated opportunistic infections. Researchers also are investigating how exactly HIV damages the immune system. This research is identifying new and more effective targets for drugs and vaccines. This new book includes in its scope the prevention, pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of this disease.

Everything you need to know about dealing with HIV/AIDS in one concise volume

Written by nurses for nurses, this thoroughly revised edition of ANAC's Core Curriculum for HIV/AIDS Nursing highlights the extraordinary improvements in clinical and symptom management in HIV/AIDS over the last 10 years.

Containing not only the essential information that every practitioner needs to know (such as taking a medical and social history, physical examination, symptomatic conditions and management, HIV testing, and laboratory and diagnostic evaluation), ANAC's Core Curriculum also covers specialized nursing information such as case management, ethical and legal concerns, infection control, and patient education.

Essential for those new to HIV/AIDS care as well as a refresher for those with years of experience in infectious diseases, ANAC's Core Curriculum is a concise, but thorough reference for clinical, symptomatic, and psychosocial management of adults, adolescents, children, and infants at different stages of HIV/AIDS.

ANAC's Core Curriculum presents key details of symptomatic conditions, AIDS indicator diseases, and comorbid complications. It also describes how to manage anorexia/weight loss, cognitive impairment, cough, dyspnea, dysphagia, oral lesions, fatigue, fever, insomnia, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, sexual dysfunction, and vision loss. Most importantly, ANAC?s Core Curriculum offers suggestions about how to help clients handle their own health, including preventing transmission, health care follow-up, managing anti-retroviral therapy, and improved adherence to prescribed regimes.

Dispensing not only clinical help, ANAC?s Core Curriculum details psychological assessment and deals with the psychosocial concerns of both clients and their significant others, including partners, spouses, families and friends. These important sections include information on how to help clients deal with the initial diagnosis, transitional issues (safer sex, depression), and coming to acceptance.

Other important sections include discussions of the special needs of pediatric patients, including nutritional concerns, risks associated with treatments, and clinical problems such as developmental delay. ANAC?s Core Curriculum also briefly covers special populations, such as commercial sex workers, health care workers, older adults, pregnant women, and incarcerated people.

ANAC's Core Curriculum for HIV/AIDS Nursing, New Century Edition belongs in every nursing library and on the desk of every floor that deals with HIV/AIDS clients. Check it out today!

A textbook aimed at nurses working with and in the homes of people with AIDS. Also useful to the family and friends of a person with AIDS.

Along with the distress associated with the diagnosis of a life-threatening disease, individuals with HIV also face huge social challenges based on reactions to their disease by other individuals and society. While there are numerous books covering research on risk of HIV infection and attitudes about the disease, limited empirical research on the social interaction process in coping with HIV exists. Carefully edited, HIV and Social Interaction explores the seropositive personAEs relationships with family, friends, intimate partners, and other members of his or her social network. The contributors present original theoretical models and research, derived from psychology and communication. Written with clarity, HIV and Social Interaction indicates how being HIV positive influences an individualAEs social interactions as well as interpersonal relationships. Chapters include the following topics: + The stigmatization of HIV and AIDS + Weighing the benefits and risks of self-disclosure about the HIV diagnosis + Accessing, finding, and maintaining quality social support + The value of group residence facilities for persons with AIDS + The effects of HIV on intimate relationships + The impact on volunteers who provide assistance to persons with AIDS In addition, the chapter authors discuss implications of their work for interventions and assisting HIV positive individuals, members of their social networks, health providers, and social services providers. A deeper understanding of these and related issues is vital for the comprehensive and empathetic delivery of services by healthcare professionals. HIV and Social Interaction is equally important for social scientists, students, as well as persons who are HIV-positive and anyone within their social network.