Reference Reviews

Doug's Student Reference Room

Perspectives on Diseases and Disorders: AIDS. Edited by Katherine Macfarlane. 144 p. Detroit, MI: Thomson Gale, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-7377-3868-1. $34.95.

Perspectives on Diseases and Disorders: AIDS AIDS is the second leading cause of death in the developing world behind pneumonia and just ahead of malaria. Sub-Saharan Africa, where 10 percent of the world’s population lives, contains 65 percent of all people living with HIV. In the United States, in spite of education campaigns, HIV still infects more than 40,000 people a year. The first chapter of this volume introduces the risk factors, causes, symptoms and treatment of AIDS, including an entire essay on current drug therapies. The final essay in this section provides a history of the disease, giving readers an idea of how HIV/AIDS has become pandemic in Africa. Essays in the second chapter, examining controversies around AIDS, explore the role of the global community in addressing the AIDS epidemic in Africa, the root causes of AIDS in Africa, drug companies’ ethical responsibilities in combating the disease, and mandatory testing for AIDS in the United States. The personal accounts in the final chapter include a rap from a young African woman reflecting on life with the threat of AIDS as omnipresent and life-changing; an American teenaged female who contracted AIDS from her boyfriend; and an American woman with HIV who has successfully given birth to two children without passing along the disease. The personal essays are compelling and will attract young readers. Nevertheless, this section would benefit from personal accounts by people in developing countries who have contracted the disease. Such pieces may help students understand the enormity of the AIDS challenge in impoverished societies. Recommended for middle school, high school and public libraries.

—Doug Achterman