In a searing analysis of the AIDS "epidemic", Fumento thoroughly documents how and why AIDS is not a heterosexual disease. Despite fear and hysteria often fueled by partisan politics, AIDS remains largely restricted to two high-risk groups: homosexual men and IV drug users.

Politicians, interest groups, and the mass media often answer questions about how AIDS is sexually transmitted as if heterosexual vaginal intercourse is a high-risk activity. When it comes to understanding how AIDS is transmitted, and formulating effective policy to deal with the spread of AIDS, America remains confused. What Brody calls ideological knowledge about AIDS is far more likely to filter through society than scientific knowledge. Sex at Risk is a comprehensive review of the scientific literature dealing with. the transmission of AIDS. Like Michael Fumento's The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS, it exposes the mythology surrounding vaginal intercourse and AIDS transmission, Brody also looks deeply at reasons that fear of AIDS transmission from vaginal intercourse has spread so widely and profoundly, He addresses serious methodological problems in AIDS/HIV behavioral research, as well as tendentious political correctness that has done a disservice to science. Sex at Risk also comprehensively reviews the international research literature on correlates of lifetime number of sexual partners and frequency of sexual intercourse. Among topics covered are: relationships between lifetime number of sexual partners and mental health, explanations for important differences between intercourse and masturbation, the possible association of frequency with healthy functioning, and correlations between frequency and national development. Brody concludes by discussing what AIDS reveals about how politically correct thought impedes scientific progress, when taboo themes, regardless of their validity, cannot be pursued, Sex at Risk is factually grounded, yet controversial. Brody raises critical questions about much of what we have learned about AIDS from popular and professional publications, "soft scientists," and public health campaigns. It will be of interest to medical doctors, clinicians, and those interested in the sociology and psychology of knowledge.

Investigates the political and financial forces that have shaped AIDS research, including the growing dissension within scientific ranks, the power politics among virologists, and other controversial issues

An updated edition of Jacques Pépin's acclaimed account of the events that transformed a chimpanzee virus into a global pandemic.

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.

This volume blows apart the myths about who gets AIDS and shows how these myths are driven by moral and political pressures. It argues that the story of HIV has been distorted by UNAIDS and AIDS activists in order to support the myth of high potential risk of HIV epidemics spreading into the general population.

Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS builds from Marc Epprecht’s previous book, Hungochani (which focuses explicitly on same-sex desire in southern Africa), to explore the historical processes by which a singular, heterosexual identity for Africa was constructed—by anthropologists, ethnopsychologists, colonial officials, African elites, and most recently, health care workers seeking to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This is an eloquently written, accessible book, based on a rich and diverse range of sources, that will find enthusiastic audiences in classrooms and in the general public. Epprecht argues that Africans, just like people all over the world, have always had a range of sexualities and sexual identities. Over the course of the last two centuries, however, African societies south of the Sahara have come to be viewed as singularly heterosexual. Epprecht carefully traces the many routes by which this singularity, this heteronormativity, became a dominant culture. In telling a fascinating story that will surely generate lively debate, Epprecht makes his project speak to a range of literatures—queer theory, the new imperial history, African social history, queer and women’s studies, and biomedical literature on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. He does this with a light enough hand that his story is not bogged down by endless references to particular debates. Heterosexual Africa? aims to understand an enduring stereotype about Africa and Africans. It asks how Africa came to be defined as a “homosexual-free zone” during the colonial era, and how this idea not only survived the transition to independence but flourished under conditions of globalization and early panicky responses to HIV/AIDS.

Now an award-winning documentary feature film The search for a “patient zero”—popularly understood to be the first person infected in an epidemic—has been key to media coverage of major infectious disease outbreaks for more than three decades. Yet the term itself did not exist before the emergence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. How did this idea so swiftly come to exert such a strong grip on the scientific, media, and popular consciousness? In Patient Zero, Richard A. McKay interprets a wealth of archival sources and interviews to demonstrate how this seemingly new concept drew upon centuries-old ideas—and fears—about contagion and social disorder. McKay presents a carefully documented and sensitively written account of the life of Gaétan Dugas, a gay man whose skin cancer diagnosis in 1980 took on very different meanings as the HIV/AIDS epidemic developed—and who received widespread posthumous infamy when he was incorrectly identified as patient zero of the North American outbreak. McKay shows how investigators from the US Centers for Disease Control inadvertently created the term amid their early research into the emerging health crisis; how an ambitious journalist dramatically amplified the idea in his determination to reframe national debates about AIDS; and how many individuals grappled with the notion of patient zero—adopting, challenging and redirecting its powerful meanings—as they tried to make sense of and respond to the first fifteen years of an unfolding epidemic. With important insights for our interconnected age, Patient Zero untangles the complex process by which individuals and groups create meaning and allocate blame when faced with new disease threats. What McKay gives us here is myth-smashing revisionist history at its best.

Fumento, a conservative science journalist, explodes the media hype surrounding such perceived threats as Alar, Agent Orange, dioxin, and food irradiation in this provocative, hard-hitting defense of modern technology. He exposes political intrigues and agendas that have led to the media's one-sided coverage of Love Canal, fallout from video display terminals, electromagnetic fields, and other issues.

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.