The AIDS Pandemic Social Perspectives

Subjects:

• Health/Medicine » AIDS
• Gay & Lesbian Studies » Gay & Lesbian (general)
• Health/Medicine » AIDS
• Sociology » Sociology (General)

Reviews:

• ...This book, written for the general reader, provides a summary of recent writings about AIDS and a framework for assessing and thinking about the AIDS epidemic. It is a work that will also be very useful to the specialist needing a broad overview of the social components and implications of this disease. This well-written and organized book reviews a wide range of fields from economics and epidemiology to social psychology and sociology, clearly providing insight into the fact that AIDS is a social event of great magnitude, in addition to a horrible tragedy for individuals and families. Sills has provided an international perspective for understanding the impact of AIDS in society at large. Very useful reference section; footnotes. All levels.
  —Choice
• She presents a well-reasoned critique of the problem of sexuality because of the inordinate emphases on the medical model....Sills provides us with important insights on an emerging profile of the AIDS pandemic...This important book, written for both a general and specialized readership, offers a framework for thinking differently about the causes and consequenses of the transmission of HIV. ...Sills provides a solid interdisciplinary perspective to describe the social, economic, and political impact of the epidemic around the world...The AIDS Pandemic is a valuable work that provides a state-of-the-art account of the global epidemic of HIV disease...the book is an excellent contribution and must reading for those wishing to move beyond the constricted biomedical paradigm that still dominates HIV/AIDS research and policy.
  —
  Society
• ..provides a summary of recent writings about AIDS from a variety of fields, including virtually all the social sciences as well as epidemiology, medicine, and public health. Well researched and presented with a welcome absence of the emotional rhetoric common in companion volumes. I would strongly recommend it to those wanting a dispassionate overview of this intractable phenomenon of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Students can only benefit by being exposed to it.
  —Contemporary Sociology

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Dimensions and Scope of the Pandemic
• AIDS in the Developing World
• AIDS in the United States
• The International Response
• Public Reactions
• Governmental Responses
• The Task of Changing Sexual Behavior
• References
• Name Index
• Subject Index