The Politics Of Aids (how They Turned A Disease Into A Disaster)

In twenty-five years Aids has killed 25 million, one million for each year of the epidemic, and another 40 million have been infected – a total exceeding the population of Tamil Nadu. But why, when Aids is preventable? Many of these lives could have been saved and millions of infections could have been averted. In the first book to fix responsibility for the catastrophe, Peter Gill calls individuals and institutions to account. The Bush administration, allied with the Christian Right, has joined the Vatican in promoting abstinence and fidelity. Will that work as a health strategy? Many African leaders have deliberately ignored the crisis and South Africa has even withheld life-saving drugs from its people. Britain has promoted concern for Aids in Africa, but has neglected its duty at home. About Author: Peter Gill has recently led a major campaign against AIDS in India for the BBC World Service Trust. He has been a foreign correspondent for the Daily Telegraph in South Asia and the Middle East, and has travelled widelyin the developing world as a TV reporter for Thames Television, Channel 4 and the BBC. He edited Africa Express for Channel 4 and he was one of the journalists who brought the 1984 Ethiopian famine to the world’s attention. He then wrote a definitive account of that tragedy, A Year in the Death of Africa.