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The article presents a list of books and articles related to AIDS. Some of the books and articles are "Perspectives on AIDS in Africa: Strategies for Prevention and Control," by Collins O. Airhihenbuwa, "Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome: The Victim and the Press," by Edward Albert, "AIDS in the Public Sphere: How a Broadcasting System in Crisis Dealt With an Epidemic," Keith Alcorn, "AIDS: The Politicization of an Epidemic," by Dennis Altman, "The Social Impact of AIDS in the U.S.," edited by Richard A. Berk, "Surveillance for AIDS in Uganda," by Seth Berkeley, Samuel Okware and Warren Naamara, "The Plague Years: A Chronicle of AIDS," by David Black, "Determinants of the Public's Priorities for Allocating Funds Spent on AIDS," by Sandra H. Berry, D. F. Kanouse, F. M. Gorman and E. Yano, "AIDS and Ads: Behavior Change Among Gay Men in Response to the AIDS Epidemic," by Ralph Bolton and so on.

HIV/AIDS is the major threat to development, economic growth and poverty alleviation in much of Africa. And yet the full extent of the catastrophe facing the continent is only just being recognized, and still not by all. The international development targets set by the great and the good of the global community--or at least by those members of the community who attend the international summits that set these goals--do not consider what HIV/AIDS means and are unachievable. This paper begins by setting the scene, describing the epidemic, explaining why it is so important and what makes HIV/AIDS different. It then explores how the poverty/epidemic cycle works, whereby poverty increases the spread of HIV and AIDS increases poverty. It suggests we need to look beyond monetary poverty to understand these relationships. Finally the paper assesses what can and should be done to break the HIV/AIDS poverty cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper examines the shifting nature of contemporary epidemiological classifications in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It first looks at assumptions that guide a discourse of vulnerability and circulate around risk categories. It then examines the underlying emphasis in public health on the popular frame of “vulnerable women” who acquire HIV through heterosexual transmission. Drawing on work on gender, sexuality, and intersectionality, the paper asks why a discourse of vulnerability is infused into discussions of heterosexually‐active women's HIV risks but not those pertaining to heterosexually‐active men's. The paper then moves to current surveillance categories that are hierarchically and differentially applied to women's and men's risks in the HIV epidemic. Here, the focus is on the way in which contemporary classifications allow for the emergence of the vulnerable heterosexually‐active woman while simultaneously constituting lack of fathomability concerning bisexual and lesbian transmission risk. Lastly, theories of intersectionality, are used to examine current research on woman‐to‐woman transmission, and to suggest future more productive options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multi-patch HIV/AIDS model with heterosexual transmission is formulated to investigate the impact of population migration on the spread of HIV/AIDS. We derive the basic reproduction number $ R_{0} $ R 0 and prove that if $ R_{0} \lt 1 $ R 0 < 1 , the disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable. If $ R_{0} \gt 1 $ R 0 > 1 and certain conditions are satisfied, the endemic equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable. We apply the model to two patches and conduct numerical simulations. If HIV/AIDS becomes extinct in each patch when two patches are isolated, the disease remains extinct in two patches when the population migration occurs; if HIV/AIDS spreads in each patch when two patches are isolated, the disease remains persistent in two patches when the population migration occurs; if the disease disappears in one patch and spreads in the other patch when they are isolated, the disease can spread or disappear in two patches if migration rates of individuals are suitably chosen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS offers great promise as an instrument of global action to address the devastating effects of the disease. Yet the enormity of its promise also speaks to the scope of its mission: to facilitate the financing by governments, corporations, philanthropical bodies and individuals of a massive effort to address the epidemic that has to date outpaced previous efforts at effective control. A key challenge is to devise a governance structure that makes effective action likely, satisfies donors, responds efficiently, and produces observable results. By examining recent developments, this paper seeks to outline facets of the governance challenge facing the Global AIDS Fund. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conspiracy theories (evidence-free, improbable narratives about powerful agents conspiring to harm people) circulated widely during the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and COVID-19 epidemics. They travelled over time and space, adapted to local conditions and anxieties, and were promoted for commercial and political purposes. Russian conspiracy theories claiming the viruses were United States bioweapons appeared in both epidemics. So did 'cultropreneurs' who, as a marketing strategy for their 'alternative' therapies, promoted conspiracy theories about scientific medicine. Pro-science activists sought to counter medical misinformation and debunk faux cures, but their task was harder in the 'post-truth' social-media driven context of COVID-19. Conspiracy theories about vaccines are an ongoing challenge for public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the context and meaning of the HIV epidemic as it has impacted gay men. The article begins with a review of the relevant epidemiological data and presents some background on the history and social context, the social ecology of the gay epidemic. It then discusses the primary anthropological issues and concludes with the author describing his own experience in working with the HIV epidemic and with the gay community. Understanding the sociocultural dynamics of the gay HIV epidemic will provide important insights into stopping HIV transmission in a variety of cultural settings as well as in developing effective and culturally sensitive models of care. While the epidemiology of the HIV epidemic provides some sense of the scope of the epidemic in terms of numbers, it only hints at the cultural issues involved. It is useful, therefore, to place the HIV epidemic in the historical and social context of the ecology in which it first emerged, the urban United States gay community of the early 1980's.

The article examines ethnographic methodologies relevant to the study of AIDS. A basic objective of the ethnographic approach is to provide qualitative information of a sensitive nature that cannot usually be uncovered in surveys or formal interviews. AIDS has become a new universe of fear, posing a remarkable challenge to the achievement of rapport and trust in the fieldworker's situation. Rapport in face-to-face relationships is never easy. In the context of disease, death and epidemic, the building of a private and trusting dialogue taxes the most seasoned ethnographer. The AIDS epidemic has resulted in the necessity of new collaborations between social science researchers and service providers. Because AIDS is an unprecedented and little-understood illness, public health specialists draw on diverse bodies of knowledge both to understand the vectors of the epidemic and to control the disease course, to provide interventions that limit the spread of the epidemic from those currently infected and also to offer prevention techniques to protect the uninfected.

The article presents a worst case analysis of sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS. The sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS depends upon the specifics of mixing between subpopulations with differing sexual activity rates. As the manner in which such mixing occurs is very difficult to observe, it is natural to consider the number of infected persons that would result from worst case mixing, that is, mixing that maximizes the number of infected persons in the population. That the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS depends upon the manner in which subpopulations with differing sexual habits mix has been recognized by several authors. The major advantage of random mixing models is that they are able to qualitatively capture a number of features apparent in the AIDS epidemic with reasonably modest data requirements. In particular, the mean and variance of the sexual activity rates for a population can be exploited to produce an epidemic threshold condition.

The study presented here is an exploration of the implications of patterns of sexual behaviour for the spread of HIV in China, using a bio-behavioural macrosimulation model. To reflect the uncertainty surrounding key parameters, analyses of varied scenarios are used to show a range of possible outcomes consistent with variations in selected biological and behavioural inputs. The latter are estimated from a nationwide survey of sexual behaviour recently conducted in China, a country with an emerging HIV/AIDS epidemic, where it is feared that HIV/AIDS will spread to the general population via heterosexual transmission. The results highlight the primacy of the levels and distribution of sexual activity in the population. They offer some guidelines for understanding and interpreting the potential implications of current and prospective changes in sexual behaviour for the spread of HIV/AIDS in the world's largest population, and also highlight the need to collect better data on sexual behaviour for the estimation of key model inputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIV/AIDS can no longer be viewed as a pandemic. It is in fact emerging as multiple epidemics. These epidemics vary from country to country, region to region and continent to continent. As a body of knowledge develops on HIV/AIDS and responses to it in sub-Saharan Africa, care is necessary when considering the experience of HIV/AIDS in other regions. This article considers similarities and differences between the epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia and the Pacific, and makes suggestions for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the response of Botswana to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In recognition of the fact that HIV/AIDS is more than just a health issue, Botswana has instigated a multi-sectoral response to the epidemic, which sets Botswana apart as an example of a country following ‘best practice’ in HIV/AIDS prevention and control. Yet the battle is not over. AIDS is the leading cause of death in Botswana for young adult women aged between 15 and 19 years old. This article makes suggestions for future improvement, to respond to the challenges facing Batswana women living with, and affected by, HIV/AIDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study presented here is an investigation of the importance of social interactions to perceptions of the risk of AIDS, and explores spousal communication about the AIDS epidemic in rural Malawi. A fixed-effects analysis based on longitudinal data collected in 1998 and 2001 shows that social interactions on the subject of HIV/AIDS have significant and substantial effects on respondents’ perceptions of the risk of HIV/AIDS, even after controlling for unobserved factors that affect the selection of social networks. These effects are more complex than previously thought. The dominant mechanisms—social learning and social influence—are found to vary by sex and by region, because of regional variations in the marriage pattern and the resulting implications for the formation of local social networks. The conclusion of the study is that rather than fostering denial and inaction, social interactions are an important vector of change in the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIV/AIDS is having profound impacts on livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. These include the deaths of working-age adults, the diversion of resources to caring, and the rupture of traditional chains of knowledge transmission. NGOs are responding by providing assistance to communities affected by the epidemic in the fields of agriculture, skills training, and microfinance, as well as by offering home care and support. A key feature of such initiatives is the focus on previously neglected groups such as women, school dropouts, and orphans. Factors of success include the use of participatory processes to identify target groups, and the involvement of local political leaders and adults trusted by young people in project activities. Challenges include improving monitoring systems, effectively disseminating lessons learned, and persuading donors, whose responses to the epidemic are currently focused on preventive and curative health services, to support livelihoods interventions as a matter of urgency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses leadership approaches to HIV/AIDS in Nepal. Causes of the HIV/AIDS epidemic; Creation of leadership development and dynamic planning; Outcome of Nepal project.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa has exposed the way in which gender relations can place women in a particularly precarious position in respect of health matters (Ankrah, 1991; Baylies, Bujra et al, 1999; de Bruyn, 1992; Heise & Elias, 1995; Obbo, 1993; Ulin, 1992). As it advances, it is also evident that women do not face the epidemic as a homogeneous group, but as one which is divided by varying levels of vulnerability and varieties of response. This article focuses on generational differences, as well as those defined by marital status and economic security, and identifies older women who have completed their families as positioned not just to perform a caring role but also to serve as advocates for others in articulating the dangers which gendered practices may pose for their daughters and for women in general, both married and unmarried. It will be argued that they may become spokeswomen for their communities and their families and should be seen as powerful actors around AIDS issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 13th International Conference on AIDS held in Durban, South Africa, highlighted the social catastrophe unfolding on the African continent. The meeting took place in the country with the largest number of people infected by HIV -- the virus that causes AIDS -- on the continent that is home to 70% of the world's HIV-infected population. The cruel irony of the unfolding human tragedy is that Africa is also the least equipped region in the world to deal with the multiplicity of challenges posed by the HIV virus. Drawn from ongoing research in southern Africa, this article charts the relationship between poverty, HIV prevalence and the politics of global response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a geographical analysis of the first 22 months of the Department of Defense's human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening program for military applicants. This analysis concerns four HIV epidemic loci in the United States: New York City; Miami, Florida: Houston, Texas; and San Francisco, California. The cartographic analysis, using a novel smoothing algorithm to stabilize county-based rates, highlights the diffusion of the HIV epidemic from areas with relatively high prevalence to areas with relatively low prevalence of antibody to HIV. While there are particularities specific to each region, the diffusion patterns are remarkably consistent: areas closer to an endemic focus experience a slight decline over time, while more distant areas increase. The diffusion process depicted in map sequences demonstrates expansion diffusion in all four areas, while some provide a clear indication of a mixture of expansion and hierarchical processes. A previous analysis of these data for a fifteen-month period had concluded there was no evidence of a geographic trend in the data. Those conclusions were based on all ages pooled and used multi-state geographic units, making it unlikely that trends in prevalence, which varied by proximity to HIV epicenters, would have been detected. In view of the temporal crossover between the endemic and nonendemic areas' prevalence rates observed in Florida, Texas and California, any spatial analysis of these data using statewide summary rates will obscure the spatial-temporal trends. These data provide compelling evidence for the existence of sub-state level epidemics growing spatially and temporally into areas some miles from the original epicenters. We hope these results will encourage other public health personnel to undertake detailed surveillance of the AIDS and HIV infection epidemics at a unit of analysis small enough to permit quantifying spatial diffusion of this epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines lessons gained in the family planning movement and its applications for the handling of the AIDS epidemic. The purpose of this article is to compare the assumptions and programs which grew out of the family planning experience and to explore this important model of behavioral change and health care for help in understanding the AIDS epidemic. Family planning is the largest official arena for maternal and child health care in this country. The national family planning programs are three decades old and are clearly the largest investment in safer sex or sex with planned consequences that the U.S. has ever generated. The family planning establishment has acquired depth through its alliance with feminism and the women's health movement. These combined forces have opened a public discourse about women's sexuality. A major accomplishment of the family planning movement which is applicable to the AIDS epidemic is the history of planning and evaluation. Another lesson from family planning is how to join the establishment and even be accepted and honored while treating such heated topics as women, minorities, sex, disease, confidentiality, babies, abortion, dignity, justice, morality and caring.

The article presents a preliminary conceptualization of the psychological structure of AIDS-related attitudes among American adults. This article offers a preliminary conceptualization of the psychological structure of AIDS-related attitudes among American adults and describes some of the social and psychological factors that affect those attitudes. Public attitudes surrounding AIDS are shaped by the complex characteristics of the epidemic. AIDS is a transmissible and, to date, lethal disease; personal reactions to it inevitably are influenced by concerns about individuals' own well-being and that of their loved ones. AIDS also is a highly stigmatized illness. Many persons perceived to be infected with HIV have been fired from their jobs, driven from their homes and socially isolated. The results with the focus group sample suggested several important hypotheses for follow-up research. AIDS-related attitudes appear to be structured cognitively along two dimensions, tentatively labeled coercion or compassion and pragmatism.

The article presents a study on the sexual risk behavior, sexual functioning, and HIV-disease progression in gay men in New York City. The spreading AIDS epidemic has led to major efforts at clarifying the mode of transmission of the presumed viral agent (HIV-1) of the disease. Exchange of body fluids, especially blood and semen, has been recognized as the major route of transmission. In the U.S. the most detailed studies on sexual risk practices have been conducted on samples of homosexual men, and it is in this population that frequent receptive anal intercourse with male partners has emerged as the key sexual practice associated with positive HIV status. Almost all AIDS-related studies on sexual behavior focus on its role in HIV-transmission. If one is interested in the overall effects of HIV disease, however, another aspect of sexuality comes into view, namely sexual functioning.

Simple models of closed homosexual population are developed to explore the effect of differentiation of roles in anal intercourse on the size of an AIDS epidemic. Preferential and random mixing among the sex-role subgroups are modeled via a concept of partnership-formation rates for pairs of individuals. Models of differing mixing assumptions are compared via a concept of referenced reproductive rate. Under the assumptions of no risk associated with insertive anal intercourse, explicit epidemic thresholds are determined; epidemic intensity increases with increasing size of the dual-role (insertive and receptive) subpopulation. Other results indicate that there is a threshold for reproductive rates which determines whether or not random mixing yields a more severe epidemic than a form of segregated mixing, and that for fixed epidemiological conditions, a certain level of like-with-like preference, rather than random mixing, yields a worst-case scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The HIV/AIDS epidemic has become a point of important political concern for governments especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Clinical and public health interventions to curb the epidemic can be greatly enhanced with the strategic support of political leaders. Objective: We analyzed the role of national political leadership in large-scale HIV/AIDS communications campaigns in 14 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: We primarily reviewed grey and white literature published from 2005–2014. We further triangulated data from in-person and phone interviews with key public health figures. Results: A number of themes emerged supporting political leaders’ efforts toward HIV/AIDS program improvement, including direct involvement of public officials in campaign spearheading, the acknowledgment of personal relationship to the HIV epidemic, and public testing and disclosure of HIV status. Areas for future improvement were also identified, including the need for more directed messaging, increased transparency both nationally and internationally and the reduction of stigmatizing messaging from leaders. Conclusions: The political system has a large role to play within the healthcare system, particularly for HIV/AIDS. This partnership between politics and the health must continue to strengthen and be leveraged to effect major change in behaviors and attitudes across Sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]