This book compares the policy approaches taken by China and India in dealing with HIV/AIDS, illuminating the challenges they face as they grapple with this intractable disease and identifying best practices for dealing with HIV/AIDS in the developing world and beyond.

Birth in the Age of AIDS is a vivid and poignant portrayal of the experiences of HIV-positive women in India during pregnancy, birth, and motherhood at the beginning of the 21st century. The government of India, together with global health organizations, established an important public health initiative to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child. While this program, which targets poor women attending public maternity hospitals, has improved health outcomes for infants, it has resulted in sometimes devastatingly negative consequences for poor, young mothers because these women are being tested for HIV in far greater numbers than their male spouses and are often blamed for bringing this highly stigmatized disease into the family. Based on research conducted by the author in India, this book chronicles the experiences of women from the point of their decisions about whether to accept HIV testing, through their decisions about whether or not to continue with the birth if they test HIV-positive, their birthing experiences in hospitals, decisions and practices surrounding breast-feeding vs. bottle-feeding, and their hopes and fears for the future of their children.

The result of collaboration between the University of New South Wales and the Tsinghua University in Beijing, this unique chronicle maps some of the most important social, political, and cultural characteristics of the HIV epidemic in China. Demonstrating that the epidemic was propelled by three main economic drivers--the blood trade, the drug trade, and the sex trade--this informative compilation of essays uncovers the hidden truths about the spread of HIV and analyzes its social impacts.

Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death globally, particularly among children and young adults. The spread of new pathogens and the threat of antimicrobial resistance pose particular challenges in combating these diseases. Major Infectious Diseases identifies feasible, cost-effective packages of interventions and strategies across delivery platforms to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, malaria, adult febrile illness, viral hepatitis, and neglected tropical diseases. The volume emphasizes the need to effectively address emerging antimicrobial resistance, strengthen health systems, and increase access to care. The attainable goals are to reduce incidence, develop innovative approaches, and optimize existing tools in resource-constrained settings.

This first English language book on China’s AIDS epidemic provides a picture of the current state of the epidemic, a social science and interdisciplinary perspective on gaps in the response, and a blueprint for needed actions. The book’s editors are leading experts on China’s AIDS epidemic, health and political systems. Contributors comprise some of the world’s leading Chinese and international researchers, policy-makers, and civil society representatives working on HIV/AIDS in China. The multi-disciplinary work provides a critically needed social science perspective and analysis of the epidemic, offers a framework for thinking about the spread of HIV in China, and includes suggestions for an effective policy response that also addresses social determinants.

The book focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment strategies in resource-poor settings. Contributors include HIV/AIDS researchers and public health administrators from the US, Africa, China, and Thailand. Several chapters, written by local health officials, take a close look at AIDS prevention and treatment in China at the community level. Other chapters cover issues of treatment scale-up, drug resistance, and mother-to-child transmission in Southern Africa and Thailand, and offer lessons learned for researchers in other developing countries. Overall the aim of this book is to bring some of the latest issues to the fore, and to foster exchange and collaboration between AIDS researchers in developing countries. This book grew out of an annual conference held in China and organized by the Harvard School of Public Health, and could possibly become the first volume of a series.

HIV/AIDS is a catastrophe globally but nowhere more so than in sub-Saharan Africa, which in 2008 accounted for 67 percent of cases worldwide and 91 percent of new infections. The Institute of Medicine recommends that the United States and African nations move toward a strategy of shared responsibility such that these nations are empowered to take ownership of their HIV/AIDS problem and work to solve it.