HIV and AIDS in Africa: Beyond Epidemiology - Hardcover

"This groundbreaking volume draws on a broad array of methodologies and disciplines to bring into relief the social and economic forces that have made AIDS the leading infectious cause of young adult death globally. Rejecting fashionable explanations of AIDS in Africa, this book reveals such explanations to be rooted in racism, victim–blaming, disciplinary blindness, and shoddy research.

Meticulously documented, HIV and AIDS in Africa is a treasure trove of information just what many policymakers, epidemiologists, and clinicians need to hear, whether we want to or not. But the book deserves a far wider audience. For any interventions that fail to address the broader issues of African social and economic life, as one of this fine volume s contributors predicts, are bound to fail." Paul Farmer, Harvard Medical School

"This is a thoroughly excellent book, as good as any on offer on the current HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, and a lot better than most ... This is a book that needs to be read by all those involved in development planning in Africa – and elsewhere – in NGOs as in governments, in the field as well as in the ′corridors of power′." International Development Planning Review

The new book by Ezekiel Kalipeni et al. is a landmark among all existing literature addressing the epidemic in Africa. The volume holds near 25 in–depth chapters providing brilliant analysis of the epidemic. Markku Löytönen, University of Helsinki

"The book is able to cover a vast array of topics that have been previously neglected in academic discourse ... the editors have successfully demonstrated thta HIV/AIDS must be approached in a multidisciplinary fashion in order to understand and eventually stem the spread of this epidemic ... what is refreshing in regard to this work is that the editors have taken an academic and personal approach in their attempts to grasp the influence of this epidemic ... this book can be called both humanistic and sincere." Cambridge University Press

"This book is essential reading, as it tackles the critical arguments...it represents a call to all researchers working with HIV/AIDS to take account...first book that tackles the misperceptions...the collection represents a major contribution."
Sahara Journal

AIDS is devastating many areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Over twelve million people in the region have died of AIDS in the past decade. Over 29.4 million people in the region are infected with HIV. Of the eleven people who contract HIV each minute in the world, ten live in sub-Saharan Africa.With no known cure and no vaccine as yet available, an estimated 60 per cent of Africans under the age of eighteen today will be dead of AIDS before they reach 45 years of age. Most prevention programs have largely failed because the research behind them has focused primarily on "risk groups," behavioral change models, and flawed understandings of cultural practices. HIV and AIDS in Africa: Beyond Epidemiology seeks to shift the predominant understandings generated by biomedical and epidemiological research, recognizing that HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa is a complex and regionally-specific phenomenon rooted in local economies, deepening poverty, migration, gender, war, global economies, and cultural politics. International contributors from across the social sciences further our understanding of AIDS by looking at the epidemic from angles often inadequately explored.

Ultimately, the underlying message of every contributor to this book is that AIDS is not going to diminish in Africa until social, gender, and economic inequities are addressed in meaningful ways.