Presents a portrait of the global AIDS epidemic in its multiple public health, social, and human dimensions. Drawing upon eye-witness accounts as well as data from the WHO Global Programme on AIDS, the book goes beyond statistical forecasts to show how AIDS affects the lives of real people, why the infection continues to spread, and what can be done to fight back. Throughout the book, striking photographs and a probing text are used to help readers come to terms with the complex nature of the challenge posed by AIDS. By revealing the multiple faces and facets of the global epidemic, the book aims to improve understanding of the many deep-rooted factors - from prejudice to poverty - that fuel this "catastrophe in slow motion" and complicate efforts to protect people from infection. While the overall picture is grim, with suffering and despair the dominant images, the book also presents solid evidence of a number of approaches that have proved successful in meeting the dual goals of prevention and compassionate care for those already infected. These successes, supported by what WHO has learned in coordinating the global fight against AIDS, serve as a practical guide to the best use of resources to combat the epidemic, whether at the local or the global level. The book has 21 chapters presented in four parts. Chapters in the first part provide a factual introduction to HIV and AIDS, moving from the detective work that surrounded the first cases to an explanation of the mechanisms by which HIV manages to outwit the immune system. Chapters in the second part show how the AIDS epidemic, in a multiplicity of different forms, now covers the globe. Profiles of individual countries and groups of countries concentrate on such characteristics as the number of AIDS cases and of people infected with HIV, patterns of transmission, social and cultural factors that hinder prevention and facilitate infection, groups at special risk, and projections for the immediate future. Having established a framework for understanding the global dynamics of the epidemic, the book turns to the question of why AIDS continues to spread. Drawing on first-hand experiences, mainly in Ethiopia, Thailand, the United Republic of Tanzania and the United Kingdom, chapters provide an in-depth analysis of three key contributing factors: discrimination and denial, poverty, and inequality between the sexes. Chapters in the final part, again based largely on first-hand experiences in four representative countries, tell the stories of the many people who are meeting the challenge of AIDS with courage, resourcefulness and often remarkable success. In summarizing the lessons learned from the facts, figures, faces and stories that characterize the global epidemic, the book concludes with a call for renewed commitment and united global action - lest AIDS become, like poverty and hunger, just another tragedy the world has learned to live with.

chi eng fre spa rus.

jpn.

WHODOC

WHO monograph

4