Journalist Highlights Books on AIDS, Says Responses to SARS, HIV Epidemics Provide ‘Striking Contrast’
The "near-hysteria" surrounding the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, provides a "striking contrast" to the world's response to the AIDS epidemic, Victoria Brownworth, a journalist who has covered AIDS issues for 20 years, says in a Baltimore Sun opinion piece. Since the outbreak of SARS, which has a 15% mortality rate, fewer than 400 people have died. In 2002, there were 45 million people estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and in 2001, and estimated three million people died from AIDS-related diseases. Brownworth reviews several AIDS-related books that further highlight the magnitude of the epidemic. The following are summaries of the reviewed books:
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Global AIDS: Myths and Facts: Tools for Fighting the AIDS Pandemic: Infectious-disease specialists Alexander Irwin, Joyce Millen and Dorothy Fallows examine the course of the epidemic and the means by which Western nations can help combat it.
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Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women's Equality in African-American Communities: Johnnetta Cole, former president of Spelman College, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall, a women's studies professor at Spelman, examine the secrecy surrounding HIV/AIDS within the African-American community and the effect it has had on the spread of the virus.
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Big Shot: Passion, Politics and the Struggle for an AIDS Vaccine: Patricia Thomas, former editor of the Harvard Health Letter, examines the scientific and political reasons why scientists have not yet been able to produce an AIDS vaccine.
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AIDS: A Second Opinion: Gary Null, who is part of a "small cadre of scientists, clinicians and politicians subscribing to theories promulgated by Dr. Peter Duesberg that HIV does not cause AIDS," suggests that the disease instead stems from a combination of stress, drug use, poor diet and immune system breakdown caused by other sexually transmitted diseases. However, Brownworth states that Null's "anti-scientific concept about the cause of AIDS is dangerous."
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AIDS Doctors: Voices from the Epidemic: Public health professors Ronald Bayer and Gerald Oppenheimer offer an oral history of the experiences of doctors on the front lines in treating the AIDS epidemic (Brownworth, Baltimore Sun, 5/18).