There is now a vast literature on HIV and AIDS but much of it is based on traditional biomedical or epidemiological approaches. Hence it tells us very little about the experiences of the millions of people whose living and dying constitute the reality of this devastating pandemic. Doyal brings together findings from a wide range of empirical studies spanning the social sciences to explore experiences of HIV positive people across the world. This will illustrate how the disease is physically manifested and psychologically internalised by individuals in diverse ways depending on the biological, social, cultural and economic circumstances in which they find themselves. A proper understanding of these commonalities and differences will be essential if future strategies are to be effective in mitigating the effects of HIV and AIDS. Doyal shows that such initiatives will also require a better appreciation of the needs and rights of those affected within the wider context of global inequalities and injustices. Finally, she outlines approaches to address these challenges. This book will appeal to everyone involved in struggles to improve the well-being of those with HIV and AIDS. While academically rigorous, it is written in an accessible manner that transcends specific disciplines and, through its extensive bibliography, provides diverse source material for future teaching, learning and research.

In the face of life-threatening news, how does our view of life change—and what do we do it transform it? Remaking a Life uses the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a lens to understand how women generate radical improvements in their social well being in the face of social stigma and economic disadvantage. Drawing on interviews with nationally recognized AIDS activists as well as over one hundred Chicago-based women living with HIV/AIDS, Celeste Watkins-Hayes takes readers on an uplifting journey through women’s transformative projects, a multidimensional process in which women shift their approach to their physical, social, economic, and political survival, thereby changing their viewpoint of “dying from” AIDS to “living with” it. With an eye towards improving the lives of women, Remaking a Life provides techniques to encourage private, nonprofit, and government agencies to successfully collaborate, and shares policy ideas with the hope of alleviating the injuries of inequality faced by those living with HIV/AIDS everyday.

This is the tale of a devastating pandemic, of lives cut painfully short; it's also a love letter. Derek, a distinguished designer and J, his husband, a pioneering entrepreneur and creator of both The Embassy Club, London’s answer to Studio 54, and iconic Heaven, Europe’s largest gay discotheque, met and fell in love more than 40 years ago. Their lives were high-octane, full of adventure, fun and fearless creativity. Suddenly their friends began to get sick and die – AIDS had arrived in their lives. When they got tested, J received what was then a death sentence: he was HIV Positive. While the onset of AIDS strengthened stigma and fear globally, they confronted their personal crisis with courage, humour and an indomitable resolve to survive. J’s battle lasted six long years. Turning to spiritual reflection, yoga, nature – and always to love – Derek describes a transformation of the spirit, how compassion and empathy rose phoenix-like from the flames of sickness and death. Out of this transformation also came Aids Ark, the charity they founded, which helped to save, amongst the world’s most marginalised people, more than 1,000 HIV Positive lives. This is a story of joy and triumph; about facing universal challenges; about the great rewards that come from giving back. Derek speaks for a generation who lived through a global health crisis that many in society refused even to acknowledge. His is a powerful story chronicling this extraordinary time.

By focusing on a small town in South Carolina, this study of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the South reveals the hard truths of an ongoing and complex issue. Skerritt contends that the United States has failed to adequately address the threat of HIV and AIDS in communities of color and that taboos about love, race, and sexualitycombined with Southern conservatism, white privilege, and black oppressioncontinue to create an unacceptable death toll. The heartbreak of Americas failure comes alive through case studies of individuals such as Carolyn, a wild child whose rebellion coincided with the advent of AIDS, and Nita, a young woman searching for love and trapped in an abusive relationship. The results are most visible at the towns segregated burial ground where dozens of young black men and women who have died from AIDS are laid to rest. Not only a call to action and awareness, this is a true story of how persons of faith, enduring love, and limitless forgiveness can inspire others by serving as guides for poor communities facing a public health threat burdened with conflicting moral and social conventions.

Educator Patti Lather and psychologist Chris Smithies observed and chronicled support groups for women diagnosed with HIV. Whether black, Latina, poor, or middle class, the women in these groups share the common bond of living with HIV/AIDS, and they describe how it affects their lives in terms full of practical reality and moving poignancy, as they fight the disease, accept, reflect, live and die with and in it.

Publisher Description

In this nation, in this decade, there is only one way to deal with an individual who is sick-with dignity, with compassion, care and confidentiality, and without discrimi nation. Statement made by President George Bush at the National Business Leadership Conference This book is about the care of sick human beings. It is about the heroic struggle of individuals with AIDS. It is about their daily coping in the workplace and at home; about economic problems, the loss of friendship and family support, and physical and emotional pain. But it is also about empowering them to deal with their disease, viewing them not as victims but as warriors, vital and active par ticipants in their battle against AIDS. This book is also about the social context in which HIV-infected persons and people with AIDS live. It is about how we must learn to deal with sickness in more compassionate and humanitarian ways and what we yet need to learn. It touches on the health care system that confronts those who are ill, on programs of prevention and education, and on the personal implications of broader national and local policies.