South Africa is the richest and most developed country on the African continent, yet it has failed to arrest the dramatic progression of its domestic AIDS epidemic. This book analyzes successive governments' management (and mismanagement) of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. The book covers the years 1982-2005, using expert thinking regarding public policy making to identify gaps in the public sector's handling of the epidemic. The book highlights critical lessons for policy makers and other public health managers.

Essential reading for social and medical scientists and all those interested in infectious diseases and public health, AIDS and the Twenty-First Century examines the social and economic origins and impacts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. HIV/AIDS is not only a medical problem. It is an indication of the scale of the global crisis in public health. Accessibly written, this book is necessary reading for policymakers, students and all those who are concerned about the relationship between poverty, inequality and infectious diseases.

This volume brings together a collection of essays from researchers engaged in, or concerned with, the politics of global health. It addresses the power relations which drive global health strategies, frustrate the possibility of effective engagement and operate to relegate billions of people to a vulnerable and bleak future. From a broad engagement with the global health system, the volume focuses on arguably the most pressing public health issue of modern times - the effective global governance of HIV/AIDS. The underlying objective is to help generate a timely debate and understanding of...

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is a therapeutic intervention developed by clinicians and researchers in order to fight the HIV pandemic. It has contributed to a significant reduction in AIDS-related mortality and allowed many previously bed-ridden patients to live healthier, more productive lives. Until the advent of HAART in 1996, a diagnosis of HIV infection was considered a death sentence. A decade later, the disease has been transformed into a serious, yet potentially manageable, medical condition for thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS in the developed world - almost...

In 2008 it was believed that HIV/AIDS was without doubt the worst epidemic to hit humankind since the Black Death. The first case was identified in 1981; by 2004 it was estimated that about 40 million people were living with the disease, and about 20 million had died. Yet the outlook today is a little brighter. Although HIV/ AIDS continues to be a pressing public health issue the epidemic has stabilised globally, and it has become evident it is not, nor will it be, a global issue. The worst affected regions are southern and eastern Africa. Elsewhere, HIV is found in specific, usually,...

This volume brings together a collection of essays from researchers engaged in, or concerned with, the politics of global health. From a broad engagement with the global health system, the volume focuses on arguably the most pressing public health issue of modern times - the effective global governance of HIV/AIDS.