This groundbreaking book presents compelling data and research which reveals the shocking social and economic impact of HIV/AIDS on a global scale. Barnett and Whiteside—experts in the field for over 15 years—argue that it is vital to not only look at the disease in terms of prevention and treatment, but to also consider consequences which affect households, communities, companies, governments, and countries. This is a major contribution toward understanding the global public health crisis, as well as the relationship between poverty, inequality, and infectious diseases.

Graham Barnett was killed in Rankin, Texas, on December 6, 1931. His death brought an end to a storied career, but not an end to the legends that claimed he was a gunman, a hired pistolero on both sides of the border, a Texas Ranger known for questionable shootings in Company B under Captain Fox, a deputy sheriff, a bootlegger, and a possible "fixer" for both law enforcement and outlaw organizations. In real life he was a good cowboy, who provided for his family the best way he could, and who did so by slipping seamlessly between the law enforcement community and the world of illegal liquor traffickers. Stories say he killed unnumbered men on the border, but he stood trial only twice and was acquitted both times. Barnett lived in the twentieth century but carried with him many of the attitudes of old frontier Texas. Among those beliefs was that if there were problems, a man dealt with them directly and forcefully-with a gun. His penchant to settle a score with gunplay brought him into confrontation with Sheriff W. C. Fowler, a former friend, who shot Barnett with the latter's own submachine gun on loan. One contemporary summed it up best: "Officers in West Texas got the best sleep they had had in twenty years that Sunday night after Fowler killed Graham."

Evidence-based medicine was developed to help physicians decide whether giving a patient a particular medicine is better than doing nothing at all, and occasionally to decide whether one medicinal product is better than another. Yet evidence-based medicine, as it is currently structured, provides only limited guidance for helping physicians decide what kind of care would be best for a particular patient at a particular point in time. To remedy this problem, epidemiologists must find ways to help physicians and laymen make use of epidemiological evidence, as well as experimental evidence. This book discusses the principles, implementation methods and effectiveness of evidence-based medicine.