Points to Consider: Responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa,Asia, and the Caribbean [Paperback]

David Gisselquist (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2008

Since the early 20th century, when HIV began to circulate among humans, blood exposures during healthcare have contributed to the transmission of the virus. Despite all the money and attention directed at HIV/AIDS in the past several decades, these risks have remained. The book asks why, and seeks answers to a number of crucial questions: How much of the worst HIV epidemics are from blood exposures? Why have these risks persisted? And what is to be done? Points To Consider looks to the future and recommends new strategies that people and governments can adopt to ensure that healthcare and cosmetic services do not transmit HIV, and to reliably stop the worst HIV/AIDS epidemics. _______________________________ David Gisselquist has published more than a dozen articles in medical journals on HIV epidemics in Africa and India, with special attention to risks to transmit HIV through health care. He has traveled and worked in Africa and Asia, and has assisted field research on HIV in India and Kenya. He co-edited a collection of country studies on injection practices (Pilot-Testing the WHO Tools to Assess and Evaluate Injection Practices, published by WHO, 2003), and has spoken at WHO and at international AIDS conferences. Dr Gisselquist holds a PhD in economics, with experience in anthropology and rural development. He is an independent consultant

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd (March 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 190506845X
• ISBN-13: 978-1905068456
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,103,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AIDS tragedy in Africa, Eastern Europe..., September 17, 2008

By 

Garance Upham (France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Points to Consider: Responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa,Asia, and the Caribbean (Paperback)

It is extremely sad to keep in mind the 40 million sick or dead from HIV that might have been avoided if public health measures had been taken.
Gisselquist brings together a lot of data, and Points to Consider is a must for the concerned person.
Today HIV epidemic continue via dirty needles unchecked. Last year, in 2007, 100 children were found contaminated with HIV as the Kyrgyzstan investigated, and 133 in 2006 in Kazakhstan: re-use of needles without sterilization, contaminated multidose vials, low paid medical staff, lack of supplies- all responsible for death of the children. Official litterature and dogma prevent investigations in Africa.. It's more convenient to blame HIV on promiscuous sex.. Garance at safeobserver.org

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHO missing the obvious, September 15, 2008

By 

Chuck (The Great White North) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Points to Consider: Responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa,Asia, and the Caribbean (Paperback)

As someone interested in the AIDS pandemic in Africa, I am familiar with several of the publications by Gisselquist and his colleagues. With an article here and there calling to look at the rates of HIV infection from medical care (unsterile instruments and needles) it is hard to put the whole puzzle together. With Points to Consider, Gisselquist puts the whole puzzle together. Why is WHO concerned primarily with sexual transmission of HIV (which occurs about in less than 1 sexual encounter per 1000) when tainted medical devices have about a 90% transmission rate?

He makes an excellent case for how this is happening and why differences in sexual mixing patterns are not enough to explain the differences in HIV infection rates. The book points out an important anomaly in the current paradigm about how HIV is spreading in Africa. By ignoring nosocomial infections, WHO is allowing the pandemic to spread. The answer is simple: once use needles and syringes and clean sterile medical instruments.

5.0 out of 5 stars Authoritative and Persuasive, August 3, 2009

By 

Edward Uravic (Hershey, Pa. United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Points to Consider: Responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa,Asia, and the Caribbean (Paperback)

As someone previously uninformed in this area with no scientific background, I was pleasantly surprised to find this book well written, easy to read, and highly persuasive. There is no dearth of scientific rigor in the book, but the footnotes are discreetly placed at the end of the chapters, and the references in the body of the work do not intrude on the narrative, allowing the author to make his case quickly and confidently. Dr. Gisselquist lays bare the western ethnocentrism at the heart of international health community's early collective misreading of the causes of the HIV AIDs crisis in Africa, and more importantly, the medical practices necessary now to address it. This book should be required reading for all policy makers and NGOs invovled in international health policy and planning.