The Slow Plague: A Geography of the AIDS Pandemic
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Book Overview
Based on research by a leading geographer and specialist in diffusion theory, The Slow Plague discloses the geographic dimension of the AIDS pandemic. It provides a lucid description of the HIV, its origins, and the extent to which it has now permeated our lives. The author shows how the virus jumps from city to city, creating regional epicenters from which it spreads into surrounding areas. Four case studies at different geographic scales demonstrate the devastating effects of the disease. In Africa the situation is catastrophic, in Thailand it is rapidly becoming so. In the US there are over 300,000 people with AIDS and more than one million infected by the HIV. The relationships between poverty, drugs and HIV infection are brought out poignantly in a chapter about the Bronx. The author argues that a real understanding of AIDS has been hampered by conscious or unconscious beliefs that those affected are, and will continue to be, confined to specific minority groups and to parts of the Third World. He shows that such views have led to fundamental misconceptions about the pattern of the spread of the disease and about those who will be most at risk, now and in the immediate future.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:1557864195
ISBN13:9781557864192
Release Date:October 1993
Publisher:Wiley-Blackwell
Length:248 Pages
Weight:0.94 lbs.
Dimensions:0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
informative and interesting leisure read
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
Having emerged from highschool Science with a largely mystifying impression of AIDS and HIV, this has to be an enjoyable but very effective wakeup call for me. With next to no understanding of the scientific details, I found what should have been dry and uninteresting a convincing and thoughtprovoking read. Even though Gould seems openly political and states his opinions in no uncertain terms, the issues he raises are compelling, and his style entertaining. His mildly biting humour, descent at every opportunity to the layman's perspective, and somewhat stream-of-consciousness style makes this book not only easy to understand but very enjoyable. The reader emerges much more informed and aware, without feeling as if they have swallowed reams of ink and paper. :D
Excellent!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
Written in 1992, this book is still well worth reading by anyone, lay or expert, interested in the spread of HIV/AIDS. Readers with scanty technical knowledge of the virus, and no familiarity with what geographers do or how they think, need not fear. Gould is a master of exposition. Four especially illuminating chapters take us through the spread of HIV/AIDS within continental Africa, the nation of Thailand, the state of Ohio and the limits of the Bronx. As a geographer, Gould shows how grappling with the spatial dimension of HIV/AIDS yields both insight and useful knowledge. His criticisms of policies which foster disease, impede prevention, and often misdirect AIDS research and AIDS programs are still, I suspect, valid. This is a spirited and humane work which lives up to its dedication 'Liber geographicus pro bono publico'.
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