Reviewer: Cristanna M. Cook, Ph.D(Husson College)
Description: This book pulls together research and other information concerning the development of HIV/AIDS, the level of infection that can be manifest in HIV/AIDS, how scientists, governments, and the public have responded to HIV/AIDS, social inequality and gender issues in HIV/AIDS transmission and scientific research, the relationship between drug taking and HIV/AIDS, and the impact of HIV/AIDS on health policy and public health.
Purpose: The purpose is to begin to account for the ways in which HIV/AIDS has transformed various disciplines in health, medicine, science, politics, and the law.
Audience: Although someone within HIV/AIDS research would know the information contained in the book, it is an excellent summary of many discrete issues of importance to the understanding of how HIV/AIDS has come to be such a worldwide problem. It is of particular interest to those who may work in countries where the face of HIV/AIDS has changed. Disenfranchised women and the young are in danger of infection. The book points out that to understand the prevalence of HIV/AIDS it is necessary to understand inequality, poverty and male/female roles in a society. In developing counties it is often the powerless who are in severe danger of contracting this disease.
Features: The major areas covered are: general history of HIV/AIDS, the virus and the immune system, virulence of the virus, the lack of adequate warning because of lack of quantitative epidemiological data, the correlation between increased likelihood of becoming infected and increased drug use, social inequality and the increased likelihood of becoming infected, gender equity in clinical trials, the relationship between HIV and other STDs, the changing demographics of those increasingly infected, privacy issues versus public needs, and the hope for inclusion, representation, and parity so that those affected may have a say in the decision making regarding prevention and resource allocation. The major strength of the book is that it points out situations that are more likely associated with the disease (not just the usual talk about sexual behavior or drug use), such as war and political instability and the need to move constantly to make a living without the ability to take one's family.
Assessment: This book is very informative, especially to the non-HIV/AIDS healthcare professional or to anyone interested in the major issues surrounding HIV/AIDS. It also places before the reading public the demographic changes taking place in the transmission of HIV/AIDS. The strongest point is the revelation that HIV/AIDS in many parts of the world is related to the values of the culture, the level of poverty, the ethnic/racial differences, war and instability, and the role of women in the society.
