Health Sciences Library Virtual Displays

Birth in the Age of AIDS is a vivid and poignant portrayal of the experiences of HIV-positive women in India during pregnancy, birth, and motherhood at the beginning of the 21st century. The government of India, together with global health organizations, established an important public health initiative to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child. While this program, which targets poor women attending public maternity hospitals, has improved health outcomes for infants, it has resulted in sometimes devastatingly negative consequences for poor, young mothers because these women are being tested for HIV in far greater numbers than their male spouses and are often blamed for bringing this highly stigmatized disease into the family.

The opening chapter of Living with HIV/AIDS: Challenges, Perspectives and Quality of Life is concerned with exploring the implications of living with invisible conditions in both social and professional networks, and how that may impact their overall health and wellbeing. The authors use empirical examples of people living with mental illness and people living with HIV/AIDS to examine how the level of their visible or invisible symptoms played out on their experience of living with such invisible conditions. The goal of the subsequent study is to explore the process of interviewing sero-discordant couples through a participatory action research methodology, as well as the outcome of science-in-action that was developed and formed into social capital by the community of couples living with HIV. The authors also present a theoretical taxonomy on the various themes of microaggressions that people living with HIV/AIDS encounter, including stigmatized language, desexualization and dating/sex-related microaggressions, dehumanization and second-class citizenship, pathology of HIV/AIDS, romanticizing of HIV/AIDS, and criminalization of HIV/AIDS. The final section of this compilation aims to determine the reflexivity of HIV/AIDS survivors and the strategies taken to maintain a good quality of life.

Since the 1980s HIV/AIDS has occupied a singular position because of the rapidly emergent threat and devastation the disease has caused, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. New infections continue to create a formidable challenge to households, communities, and health systems: last year alone, 2.7 million new infections occurred globally. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the epicenter of the suffering, with around two-thirds of infected individuals worldwide found there, and a disproportionate number of deaths and new infections. For years there have been widespread and concerted efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, identify a cure, and understand and mitigate the deleterious social and economic ramifications of the disease. Despite these efforts, and some apparent successes, there is still a long way to go in terms of altering behaviors in order to realize the objective of dramatic reductions in the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa. The authors in this volume examine the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa, which persists despite major strides in averting deaths due to antiretroviral therapy. They tell an important story of the distinct nature of the disease and its socioeconomic implications.

With increasing efficacy of antiretroviral therapy, HIV/AIDS has shifted from a disease with high mortality to a chronic illness with substantial longevity. However, researchers, physicians and social workers still face many challenges, and it is important to raise awareness on several aspects that people living with HIV/AIDS have to deal in their daily lives. This book has assembled an array of chapters on the medical, social and economic aspects of HIV/AIDS. The chapters were written by experts from around the globe reflecting the importance of the topic. This book will be of great interest not only to graduate students but also to active academics and practitioners.

This handbook is intended to assist nongovernmental organizations, community-based organizations, and groups of people living with HIV/AIDS in finding ways of understanding, planning, and undertaking work on HIV/AIDS-related treatment. It builds on practical skills by using participatory activities and sharing experiences; provides a training resource for NGO support programs, training organizations and individuals; and facilitates ongoing learning about the treatment work being carried out by the various groups involved. Applicable at all levels of experience, the handbook offers flexibility to facilitators who need to gear their work towards specific schedules or situations.

This work includes a foreword by Jeffrey Koplan, Vice President, Academic Health Affairs, Emory University, Atlanta, Formerly Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This groundbreaking new book blows apart the myths about who is at risk of getting AIDS and shows how these myths are driven by moral and political pressures. It provides an objective, logical, clear, epidemiologically based analysis on the current situation and situates itself firmly at marked variance with the politically correct position of UNAIDS and most AIDS activists. "The AIDS Pandemic" argues that the story of HIV has been distorted by UNAIDS and AIDS activists in order to support the myth of the high potential risk of HIV epidemics spreading into the general population. In the past, most policy makers and members of the public have uncritically accepted UNAIDS' high prevalence estimates and projections when in fact lower HIV prevalence estimates are more accurate. Time, money and resources are being wasted worldwide. This book is full of fresh analysis for all people working in any capacity in HIV/AIDS programmes. It will be invaluable to undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare students, health and social care professionals and the international media. Policy makers and shapers will find the pioneering information crucial to the future of the AIDS strategy. 'For close to a half century, my work as a public health epidemiologist has involved field research, program management, and teaching, mostly on public health surveillance and prevention and control of communicable diseases. [Since 1981] I have been involved virtually full time with the international response to the AIDS pandemic which is without question one of the most severe infectious disease pandemics in modern times.

As HIV moves into the heterosexual population the threat to mothers and babies has become acute. One in three of those infected with HIV are women and the majority of those are in their childbearing years. If HIV is vertically transmitted, both mother and child are affected - in many cases, fathers and siblings are also ill and the family group may require an unprecedented level of care. This book is aimed at counsellors working in HIV, drug use or family planning, and health care professionals involved in pregnancy. It deals with pre- and post-test counselling, the choice whether or not to terminate the pregnancy and whether to desist from subsequent pregnancies, the prospect of dealing with an ill baby in the presence of a potentially ill mother and father, and the special problems of children, home life and parenting.

Meet the women behind the statistics! Women's Experiences with HIV/AIDS: Mending Fractured Selves examines the impact of HIV/AIDS on women, the fastest-growing subgroup of the HIV-infected population of the United States. Based on interviews with HIV-infected women, the book gives voice to their experiences. This powerful text offers a firsthand view of what it is like to live day-to-day as a woman with the added burden of HIV/AIDS. Women's Experiences with HIV/AIDS is a powerful and compelling look at the day-to-day struggles of 37 women infected with HIV. Their stories detail their ongoing efforts--with varying degrees of success--to come to grips with the disease as they try to rebuild their lives. Through qualitative analysis, the book demonstrates the importance of relational resources, such as AIDS activism, support groups, and social support. It also addresses potential problems for women associated with caregiving and presents ethnographic research findings on the complex factors that affect women with HIV (socioeconomic status, sexual preference, lifestyle differences). Women's Experiences with HIV/AIDS also addresses research topics such as: how HIV infection affects a woman's sense of self how women repair disruption and restore identities the limits to women's coping strategies and whether those strategies still work if women become functionally impaired or develop AIDS how women's structural and social environments facilitate or impede repair the role of women's informal networks in biological disruption and repair A rare look at the experience of women infected with HIV (most studies focus on male samples), Women's Experiences with HIV/AIDS is an invaluable academic resource as a course supplement in the fields of medical sociology, women's studies, public health, and community health, and is an enlightening read for everyone interested in HIV/AIDS research.