Publisher's Synopsis
Aimed at students taking interdisciplinary courses in contemporary social issues, this analysis of the AIDS epidemic brings together current information drawn from many different subject areas in an integrated, manageable way. The author examines the disease, its characteristics and our perceptions of it, from the multiple perspectives of epidemiology, microbiology, political science, economics, social policy, sexuality, linguistics, religion, ethics, medical research and health care, in order to paint a broad picture of the epidemic itself.;Topics covered include a study of the metaphors applied to AIDS and the policy significance of linguistic usage, a historical-epidemiological comparison of AIDS with the bubonic plague, personal-avoidance strategy and risk assessment, the professional impact on groups principally engaged in developing cures of treatments for AIDS, economic and political impacts through the Ryan White Act of Septmenber 1990, and a conjectural view of the future course of AIDS.;The author consistently views AIDS as a morally neutral disaster that presents immense challenges to accepted forms of thought and social organisation, but that, at the same time, offers an opportunity to correct historically embedded prejudices.
