The Impact of AIDS: Psychological and Social Aspects of HIV Infection


Book Description

This volume contains a selection of key contributions to the discussion on the psychological and social implications on HIV infection. It contains up-to-date and authoritative papers by senior practitioners and researchers in the field of the psychological and social aspects of HIV infection. The book will appeal to those involved in providing care




The Social Impact of AIDS in the United States


Book Description

Europe's "Black Death" contributed to the rise of nation states, mercantile economies, and even the Reformation. Will the AIDS epidemic have similar dramatic effects on the social and political landscape of the twenty-first century? This readable volume looks at the impact of AIDS since its emergence and suggests its effects in the next decade, when a million or more Americans will likely die of the disease. The Social Impact of AIDS in the United States addresses some of the most sensitive and controversial issues in the public debate over AIDS. This landmark book explores how AIDS has affected fundamental policies and practices in our major institutions, examining: How America's major religious organizations have dealt with sometimes conflicting values: the imperative of care for the sick versus traditional views of homosexuality and drug use. Hotly debated public health measures, such as HIV antibody testing and screening, tracing of sexual contacts, and quarantine. The potential risk of HIV infection to and from health care workers. How AIDS activists have brought about major change in the way new drugs are brought to the marketplace. The impact of AIDS on community-based organizations, from volunteers caring for individuals to the highly political ACT-UP organization. Coping with HIV infection in prisons. Two case studies shed light on HIV and the family relationship. One reports on some efforts to gain legal recognition for nonmarital relationships, and the other examines foster care programs for newborns with the HIV virus. A case study of New York City details how selected institutions interact to give what may be a picture of AIDS in the future. This clear and comprehensive presentation will be of interest to anyone concerned about AIDS and its impact on the country: health professionals, sociologists, psychologists, advocates for at-risk populations, and interested individuals.




The AIDS Generation


Book Description

For young gay men who came of age in the United States in the 1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic was a formative experience in fear, hardship, and loss. Those who were diagnosed before 1996 suffered an exceptionally high rate of mortality, and the survivors -- both the infected individuals and those close to them -- today constitute a "bravest generation" in American history. The AIDS Generation: Stories of Survival and Resilience examines the strategies for survival and coping employed by these HIV-positive gay men, who together constitute the first generation of long-term survivors of the disease. Through interviews conducted by the author, it narrates the stories of gay men who have survived since the early days of the epidemic; documents and delineates the strategies and behaviors enacted by men of this generation to survive it; and examines the extent to which these approaches to survival inform and are informed by the broad body of literature on resilience and health. The stories and strategies detailed here, all used to combat the profound physical, emotional, and social challenges faced by those in the crosshairs of the AIDS epidemic, provide a gateway for understanding how individuals cope with chronic and life-threatening diseases. Halkitis takes readers on a journey of first-hand data collection (the interviews themselves), the popular culture representations of these phenomena, and his own experiences as one of the men of the AIDS generation. This riveting account will be of interest to health practitioners and historians throughout the clinical and social sciences -- or to anyone with an interest in this important chapter in social history. Cover photo courtesy of Fire Island Pines Historical Preservation Society.




Vulnerabilities, Impacts, and Responses to HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa


Book Description

This book examines HIV/AIDS vulnerabilities, impacts and responses in the socioeconomic and cultural context of Sub-Saharan Africa. With contributions from social scientists and public health experts, the volume identifies gender inequality and poverty as the main causes of the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa.




The Impact of Aids


Book Description

First Published in 1997. From the start of the HIV epidemic, the psychological and social aspects of the AIDS infection have been recognized. This volume contains a selection of key contributions to the discussion on the psychological and social implications of such infection.




HIV/AIDS in Sport


Book Description

Now you can sort through the many complex issues regarding HIV, AIDS, and sport with this definitive, multidisciplinary book. You'll learn the medical facts about HIV and AIDS and discover the important role you play in prevention and control of HIV. HIV/AIDS in Sport debunks common myths and enables you to establish standardized guidelines that take medical, ethical, and legal concerns into account. You will also learn the personal stories of high-profile athletes who have been afflicted with HIV, including Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Arthur Ashe, and Greg Louganis.




Aging with HIV


Book Description

In 1998, approximately 30 million people worldwide were living with HIV/AIDS, about 5 million of whom became infected that year. The epidemic continues to expand, with an estimated doubling time of 10 years, making AIDS the leading infectious cause of death ahead of tuberculosis and malaria. Even in the U.S.A. where the death rate from AIDS is declining as a result of effective drug therapies, HIV infection rates continue to climb in several population groups. The prevalence of AIDS among people over the age of 50 is steadily increasing, and most older people are unprepared to address it for a number of reasons, including the widespread discomfort with matters sexual and homosexual and the belief that elderly people are not sexually active and therefore not at risk.This guide for care providers seeks to educate and inform readers about the difficulties and complications that accompany the disease in older people. Thus, while the appendix includes technical descriptions of methodology, data, and results, the narratives in the chapters describing the findings and their practical implications are written in layman's language. Topics covered include biomedical aspects, demographics, sexuality, stressors, mental health, older women, and patient care, all of which are supported by case studies.




Preventing AIDS


Book Description

Public health has a legacy of neglect regarding social and behavioral research. Too often, prompted by technical and scientific progress, we have ignored even marginalized-the vital "human element" in health thinking and prac tice. Thus, for example, while family planning programs focused on providing a choice among safe and effective contraceptive methods (a supremely worthy goal), the central issue of sexuality and sexual behavior was generally neglected. Similarly, the enormous and important efforts to develop rapid and reliable diagnostic and treatment methods for sexually transmitted diseases helped divert attention away from the crucial issues of sexual practice. In short, we seem to have difficulty addressing the fundamental behaviors-including sex, drug taking and other intoxications, and violence-that are central to the major causes of preventable morbidity, disability, and premature mortality in the world today. Our collective reluctance to examine and understand ourselves is also expressed in the oft-repeated pipedream that scientific progress will "take care of" the HIV / AIDS pandemic by delivering a preventive vaccine, an effective cure, or both. Yet even a cursory glance at the relationship between scientific/ technical progress and health shows that meeting the scientific challenges is only one step toward effective application of the vaccine or drug. It is typical, not atypical, that hepatitis B vaccine is only now becoming relatively freely available to large populations in the developing world, more than a decade after the vaccine's licensure.




Coping with HIV Infection


Book Description

"I'm like a whirling leaf in the wind," said one of Dr. Lena Nilsson SchOnnesson' s patients, and another "I'm in the claws of HIV." Their voices and those of other HIV-positive patients frame the humanistic and scholarly discussion in this impor tant book. Dr. SchOnnesson, a Fulbright scholar at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, Columbia University in 1995, has unusually extensive clinical experience in counseling HIV-positive gay men. Her work with 38 such patients treated between 1986 and 1995 is discussed in the pages that follow. Dr. SchOnnesson's longitudinal approach to clinical data is extremely unusual in the psychotherapy literature generally, and in the literature on counseling HIV positive men in particular. Building upon the experience of such recent scholar clinicians as Klitzman, Isay, Schaffner, and others, Dr. SchOnnesson adds some thing unique by analyzing her ongoing detailed notes of the psychotherapeutic process in a systematic quantitative as well as qualitative manner. The analysis of her data is further informed by her coauthor, Dr. Michael Ross, a therapist and investigator whose contribution to the clinical and research literature on the psychotherapeutic treatment of gay men has already been substantial.




HIV Psychiatry


Book Description

This book is a practical guide in understanding how to prevent HIV transmission, to recognize risk behaviors, and to add something else to their repertoires. It aims to empower clinicians and provide a sense of security and competence with the recognition and understanding of some of the psychiatric illnesses that complicate and perpetuate the HIV pandemic that continue to persist throughout every area of the world despite the magnitude of the progress that has transformed the illness from a rapidly fatal to chronic illness that is no longer life-limiting. Missing in most of the literature on HIV is the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, contribution of psychiatric symptoms, psychiatric illness, and risk behaviors that drive the pandemic and serve as catalysts for new infections. This practical guide provides state-of-the-art understanding of not only prevention but also a way to recognize risk behaviors, psychiatric symptoms, and psychiatric illnesses that will demystify and decode the sometimes enigmatic and frustrating reasons for nonadherence with diagnostic procedures and life-saving treatments and care. All behaviors and pathology are covered as well as the resources and treatments available. The goal of this text is to refresh knowledge on the current state of psychiatric illness management among people living with HIV, to provide a concise volume on the psychiatric aspects of HIV prevention and treatment that substantially impact the overall care of the patient, and to help understand the psychiatric catalysts of the pandemic Written by experts in the field, HIV Psychiatry: A Practical Guide for Clinicians provides enduring guidance to medical and other professionals caring for complicated clinical patients as they face ongoing challenges in working with persons with HIV and AIDS.