Peter Piot, founding executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), recounts his experience as a clinician, scientist, and activist fighting the disease from its earliest manifestation to today. The AIDS pandemic was not only catastrophic to the health of millions worldwide but also fractured international relations, global access to new technologies, and public health policies in nations across the globe. As he struggled to get ahead of the disease, Piot found science does little good when it operates independently of politics and economics, and politics is worthless if it rejects scientific evidence and respect for human rights. Piot describes how the epidemic altered global attitudes toward sexuality, the character of the doctor-patient relationship, the influence of civil society in international relations, and traditional partisan divides. AIDS thrust health into national and international politics where, he argues, it rightly belongs. The global reaction to AIDS over the past decade is the positive result of this partnership, showing what can be achieved when science, politics, and policy converge on the ground. Yet it remains a fragile achievement, and Piot warns against complacency and the consequences of reduced investments. He refuses to accept a world in which high levels of HIV infection are the norm. Instead, he explains how to continue to reduce the incidence of the disease to minute levels through both prevention and treatment, until a vaccine is discovered.

A social, political, and human history of the epidemic, with a look at its ongoing challenges, written by a scientist, physician, and pioneering world health leader.

About the Author
Peter Piot is the director of the renowned London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a professor of global health. He is a former Under Secretary General of the United Nations, the founding executive director of UNAIDS, and co-discoverer of the Ebola virus, and former president of the International AIDS Society. He has published more than 500 scientific papers and articles and sixteen books, including his memoirs, No Time To Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses. Laurence Garey is an anatomist, former member the Court of Examiners, Royal College of Surgeons of England, and the Council of the Anatomical Society. He has translated works from French and German, including Jean-Didier Vincent and Pierre-Marie Lledo's The Custom-Made Brain: Cerebral Plasticity, Regeneration, and Enhancement. He is an associate collaborator with the Institute of the History of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Reviews
AIDS Between Science and Politics is superb, well-crafted, and timely. The book is an excellent and valuable addition to the scientific literature. And who is better placed to address the multitude of issues pertaining to HIV/AIDS than Peter Piot? -- Mark Wainberg, McGill University AIDS Between Science and Politics is a compelling, expert analysis from the founding director of UNAIDS. A must-read for anyone interested in the international AIDS response and the ongoing social, political, and medical challenges posed by HIV. -- Nicoli Nattrass, author of The AIDS Conspiracy: Science Fights Back The author's findings, updated to 2012, should give anyone pause who thinks that AIDS is a thing of the past... of considerable use to readers with an interest in public health issues. Kirkus Reviews An enlightening account of how HIV and AIDS have shaped-and continue to shape-international public health policy. -- Beth Mole Science News AIDS Between Science and Politics is a must-read for anyone interested in the HIV/AIDS epidemic. More broadly, it offers lessons- and interesting anecdotes - useful in the response to Ebola and indeed to every challenge in global health and development. Nature Highly Recommended. CHOICE It is quite a task to write a history of the emergence and response to HIV/AIDS around the world and to do so in an accessible fashion. Yet this is precisely what AIDS Between Science and Politics accomplishes, appealing equally to AIDS experts and novices. -- Claire Laurier Decoteau Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society



Book Information
ISBN 9780231166263
Author Peter Piot
Format Hardback
Page Count 216
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press