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Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN13: 9780192806925
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
HIV/AIDS is without doubt the worst epidemic to hit humankind since the Black Death. As of 2004 an estimated 40 million people were living with the disease, and about 20 million had died. Despite rapid scientific advances there is still no cure and the drugs are expensive and toxic. In the developing world, especially in parts of Africa, life expectancy has plummeted to below 35 years, causing a serious decline in economic growth, a sharp increase in orphans, and the imminent collapse of health care systems. The news is not all bleak though. There have been unprecedented breakthroughs in understanding diseases and developing drugs. Because the disease is so closely linked to sexual activity and drug use, the need to understand and change behavior has caused us to reassess what it means to be human and how we should operate in the globalizing world. This Very Short Introduction tackles the science, the international and local politics, the fascinating demographics, and the devastating consequences of the disease, and suggests how we must respond.
| Customer Reviews: |
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| A useful short introduction to the AIDS epidemic |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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HIV virus is probably the most dreaded virus in modern times, and the disease that it causes - AIDS - has come to symbolize the latter-day plague. Despite the monumental attempts at finding a cure for AIDS or at least an HIV vaccine, this disease remains almost as intractable as when it first came to wide attention in the early 1980s. In the West AIDS remains the disease that is associated with socially marginalized groups, while globally its greatest impact is on poor countries, with the sub-Saharan Africa carrying the disproportionate number of victims. In the light of all of that all of us would be amiss if we did not get a better understanding of this dreadful disease. "HIV/AIDS - A Very Short Introduction" is a good book to learn the important facts about HIV/AIDS from.
The book is filled with a lot of statistical data and many charts. It provides an astute assessment of the prevalence and the spread of AIDS throughout the world. It deals with various social, political and economic aspects of AIDS and the author covers these topics in great detail. This is a particularly good book to read if you are interested in the public policy aspects of the AIDS epidemic.
Knowing how important a book like this is for educating public about the most important facts about AIDS, it would seem uncharitable to point out its flaws. Nonetheless, here are a few issues that I had with the book and points that I think could be improved.
* The book could have used some more editing. There are quite a few awkward sentences, and many others that are rather banal.
* The book does not spend too much time on pointing out the precautions and measures that are practical and effective at preventing AIDS at the level of an individual. Obviously we can infer that being a member of any of the higher-risk groups should be avoided, but this is nowhere really spelled out not even commented upon. This might due to the fact that this book is more aimed at describing AIDS as a phenomenon, rather than influencing individual behavior, but on the other hand the author is quick to pass judgment on governments and other groups for their approach to the problem of AIDS.
* The author shows clear bias in favor of some AIDS-prevention programs and measures and in opposition to others, but at no point in this book are we given any justification (quantitative or otherwise) for this particular set of attitudes. Many of these attitudes expressed by the author have been promoted extensively in the media, and most of them do make sense, but it would have been useful in a book like this one to be more precise and give a justification for those attitudes that goes beyond what some interest group may be advocating.
* My background is in natural science, and I would have liked if more room had been given to the scientific description of the HIV virus itself - its shape, form, what makes it so virulent, and why have all attempts at creating a successful vaccine failed so far. Even in a very short introduction aimed at the general audience more scientific information would have been useful.
* The book oftentimes swerves outside of the core topic of AIDS, often offering opinions on topics such as climate change, sustainability, sexuality, big-government programs, etc. In some of these cases there is some tangential relationship to AIDS, but more often than not one gets an impression that these are just some of the author's pet concerns and he was unable to resist the urge to put them in.
Despite its many shortcomings, this is still a very informative and important book and a useful first resource in understanding of the global AIDS epidemic.
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