This book will be a vital resource for researchers in the field of health communication, especially in the aftermath of COVID-19, as we begin confronting the reality of which countries can afford to declare an 'end to the pandemic', and which ones can't A unique feature of this book is that its center and focus is on persons living with HIV - It highlights their experiences and voices It examines the discourse of a "post-AIDS" culture using a range of methodological tools, and the medical-discursive shift from crisis and death to survival and living It includes contributions from a diverse group of international scholars, and interrogates and engages with the cultural, social, political, scientific, historical, global, and local consumptions of the term "post-AIDS" from the perspective of meaning-making on health, illness, and well-being This book will be an essential read for scholars and students of health communication, sociology of health and illness, medical humanities, political science, and medical anthropology, as well as for policy makers and activists

Diversity plays an important role in how people experience illness and healthcare as patients. Listening carefully to stories of how race, class, age, gender, sexuality, and disability can affect patient experience can be revealing and provide much needed change to health communication in the patienthood narrative. This book is a collection of vibrant and engaging essays by scholars of narrative methods in health communication. Each chapter takes readers into the fascinating world of patients who use stories from their personal lives to challenge us to rethink, reimagine, and reformulate what health communication means in practice. Each section of the book focuses on an important aspect of the theory and practice of the patienthood narrative. Part one explores the important ways that telling and sharing patient's stories can lead to learning, empowerment, and advocacy. Part two explores several key forms of diversity and how they affect patienthood. Part three illustrates how personal, relational, and cultural aspects of identity intersect to shape the patient experience.