Canada, as with the rest of the world, is trying to cope with the increase in injection drug use and HIV/AIDS. "The number of HIV infections and AIDS cases attributable to injection drug use has been climbing steadily." The sharing of needles, spoons/cookers, filters, and water are known to increase HIV infections. Those who use drugs perform unsafe sex, creating a problem for all people, but particularly women, street youth, prisoners, and Aboriginal people. This report prepared by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network is the result of three national workshops held between November, 1997 and March, 1999. Seven priority issues were analyzed:
1. "What is the impact of the current legal status of drugs and drug use on efforts to prevent HIV infection among injection drug users and on the provision of care, treatment, and support to drug users with HIV/AIDS?"
2. "What legal and ethical issues arise in circumstances in which illegal drug use is permitted in the course of providing health care and social services--primary health care, community clinics, pharmacy services, residential care, palliative care, housing services--to drug users?"
3. "Is it legal and ethical to make cessation of drug use a condition for treatment of a drug user?"
4. "What legal and ethical issues arise in the context of prescribing opiates and controlled stimulants to drug users in Canada?"
5. "What legal and ethical issues are raised by (a) the absence of clinical trials on the impact of illegal drugs on the immune system; (b) the absence of research on the interactions between HIV/AIDS drugs and illegal drugs; and (c) the exclusion of drug users from clinical trials involving HIV/AIDS drugs?"
6. "What are the legal and ethical grounds for ensuring that health-care providers, drug users, and the general public have accurate and complete information on illegal drugs and their effects?"
7." What legal and ethical considerations should be taken into account when implementing needle exchange and methadone maintenance programs directed at reducing the harms from drug use?"
This is an excellent report that provides the groundwork for more study as well as providing the legal community information that should be considered in working with injection drug users. This is a difficult community to work with. Society can be very cruel. These individuals are breaking laws throughout the world but to leave them untreated is only increasing the risks for those who associate with them. This report should be in all legal libraries as well as all academic libraries.
1067. Tricks and Treats: Sex Workers Write About Their Clients, edited by Matt Bernstein Sycamore. 2000. Haworth Press, 10 Alice St., Binghamton, NY 13904-1580. 181p. ISBN0-7890-0703-7, 1-56023-162-9pbk. $39.95, $17.95pbk. (Descriptors: Prostitutes' Customers; Prostitutes; Prostitution)
This book is being brought to the attention of those concerned with HIV/AIDS because of the direct relationship between many sex workers and HIV/AIDS. Although not all sex workers perform unsafe sex, the majority do, thus increasing the incidence of being infected and once being infected of infecting others. This is a graphic book that tantalizes the reader "with its powerful collection of tales from a diverse group of male, female, and transgendered sex workers." It explores accounts from streetworkers, escorts, strippers, porn actors, masseurs, dominatrixes, phone sex operators, an adult-video store clerk, an outreach worker, a sex education, and even a sperm donor. It is a recommended book for all academic libraries and a must-read for those who are sex workers.
1068. Mothers and Children Confronting HIV: Challenges, Choices, Lessons Learnt, by Andrea Tapper, edited by Lieve Fransen. 2000. European Commission, Directorate-General for Development, Rue de la Loi 200, B-1049 Brussels, BELGIUM. 215p. ISBN 92-894-0062-5. Order no. 451/508E. Write for price. http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/aids (Descriptors: Mothers; Children; Family Planning)
Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of the HIV virus has been increasing throughout the world. The European Commission has recognized this and has sponsored a an international working group know as the Group of Ghent which focused on MTCT. "This book evaluates work on MTCT accomplished with the support of the EC since 1987 and provides a background and guide to develop policies and interventions to reduce MTCT. It illustrates the sometimes painstakingly slow process of understanding the dynamics of the epidemic, of understanding the transmission from a mother to her child during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding and of finding solutions to help women and children."
An excellent overview of MTCT is provided followed by case studies that look at breast-feeding, diagnosis and drugs, family planning, improving care for women and children, and altering assumptions. An extensive bibliography is provided. It is the hope that this book will "provide decision makers and programme planners with the knowledge they need to formulate effective, sustainable interventions, which in turn provide more choices for women to protect themselves, their families and their children from HIV/AIDS." This is an excellent book that is easy to read and full of information concerning MTCT. It is recommended for all academic libraries, medical libraries, and those libraries serving researchers in the medical and pharmacy industries.
1069. Virus Dynamics: Mathematical Principles of Immunology and Virology, by Martin A. Nowak, Robert M. May. 2000. Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016-4314. 237p., illus., bibliog., index. ISBN 0-19-850417-9. $34.95. (Descriptors: Virology; Immunology)
Scientists know a great deal about the molecular structure of HIV. However, "we still have no agreed understanding of why there is so long and variable an interval between infection with HIV and the onset of AIDS." Unfortunately, this lack of understanding is impeding efforts towards developing effective long-term therapies or preventive vaccines. Nowak and May feel that there has to be a better understanding "of how entire populations of viruses like HIV interact with entire populations of different kinds of immune system cells." In response to this, they have written this book that covers theoretical immunology and virology in effort to help researchers better understand HIV. It is a highly mathematical and technical book intended for the researcher and not the layperson. The chapters cover: "Introduction: Viruses, Immunity, Equations," "HIV," "The Basic Model of Virus Dynamics," "Anti-Viral Drug Therapy," "Dynamics of Hepatitis B Virus," "Dynamics of Immune Responses," "How Fast Do Immune Responses Eliminate Infected Cells?," "What is a Quasispecies," "the Frequency of Resistant Mutant Virus Before Anti-Viral Therapy," "Emergency of Drug Resistance," "Timing the Emergence of Resistance," "Simple Antigenic Variation," "Advanced Antigenic Variation," "Multiple Epitopes," and "Everything We Know So Far and Beyond." This is a recommended book for all academic and medical libraries.
1070. Sex, Love, and Health in America: Private Choices and Public Policies, edited by Edward O. Laumann, Robert T. Michael. 2001. University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637-2954. 535p., bibliog., index. ISBN 0-226-46967-0. (Descriptors: Sex Customs; Sexual Behavior Surveys)
This is the third book to be based on the National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS). The previous two books were The Social Organization of Sexuality and Sex in America. The first was a detailed account of procedures and findings and the second highlighted the most important findings of interest to the general public. The present book contains 13 essays based on further analysis of the NHSLS data. A few of the essays may be familiar as they are revisions of articles published in diverse professional journals but the rest have never been published. The NHSLS "is a nationally representative probability sample of 1,511 men and 1,921 women between the ages of eighteen and fifty-nine living in households throughout the United States." The objective in undertaking this project was "to use social scientific methods and tools to help provide a better understanding of the motivations and consequences of adult sexual behavior and attitudes, thereby improving private decisions and public policy as regards sexual behavior, especially decisions affecting health policy as it is related to sexually transmitted diseases."The thirteen essays cover a wide variety of social issues: "Teenage Sex and the Sexual Revolution," "Choices Leading to Teenage Births," "Sexual Expression in America," "Sexual Contact between Children and Adults: A Life-Course Perspective," "Race, Gender, and Class in Sexual Scripts," "Emotional and Physical Satisfaction with Sex in Married, Cohabiting, and Dating Sexual Unions: Do Men and Women Differ," "Circumcision in the United States: Prevalence, Prophylactic Effects, and Sexual Practice," "Reported Changes in Sexual Behavior in Response to AIDS in the United States," "Racial/Ethnic Group Differences in the Prevalence of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the United States: A Network Explanation," "Sexual Dysfunction in the United States: Prevalence and Predictors," "Abortion Decisions in the United States," "Private Sexual Behavior, Public Opinion, and Public Health Policy Related to Sexually Transmitted Diseases: A U.S.-British Comparison," and "Private Sex and Public Policy."
This is an extremely well written and documented book that is readable by any educated individual. The authors end the book with the question: "Does it really matter that our knowledge about sexual behavior is so limited." We seem to know how to have babies, increase the population, and have a pretty good sex life. However, the sexual choices that we make have impacted societies the world over with viral diseases, AIDS, unwanted children, teenage childbearing, welfare dependence, funding of abortion, promotion of birth control, rape, sexual harassment, pornography, nudity, and infidelity behavior. "Better information may not solve these complex problems, but information can improve the sexual choices that we make both privately and collectively." This is a recommended book for all academic libraries.
1071. Medical Management of HIV Infection, by John G. Bartlett. 1999. Johns Hopkins University/Port City Press, 1323 Greenwood Road, Baltimore, MD 21208. 376p., spiral bound, index. ISBN 0-9244-2809-0. (Descriptors: Laboratory Tests; Disease Prevention; Therapy; Drugs; Disorders; Syndromes)
This is a book for those in the medical profession who treat HIV positive individuals on a regular basis. It provides in detail information about the management of the infection. The first section covers the natural history and classification of HIV infection with the second section describing the laboratory tests. The third section covers disease prevention, the fourth antiretroviral therapy, and the fifth the management of opportunistic infections in patients with HIV infection. The sixth section outlines in detail all of the drugs that are used in HIV management, providing generic names, trade names, cost, pharmacology, side effects, drug interactions, and creatinine clearance. The final section discusses disorders, STDs, conditions, complications, pain, and syndromes.
The book is well organized, providing the information in an easy to locate and understanding format. This is an excellent guide, recommended for all practicing physicians and a must book for all medical libraries. However, a new edition should be in the making since new drugs are being developed.
1072. Latino Truck Driver Trade: Sex and HIV in Central America, by Jacobo Schifter. 2001. Haworth Hispanic/Latino Press, 10 Alice St., Binghamton, NY 13904-1580. 226p., bibliog., index. ISBN 0-7890-0882-3, 0-7890-0883-1pbk. $49.95, $24.95pbk. (Descriptors: Sex in Central America; Truck Drivers; Sexual Behavior; Machismo; HIV Infections)
This book discusses the macho sexual culture of Central American truck drivers. The book covers two topics. The first is a demonstration "that machismo is a discourse, not a sexual culture that treats women as inferior and dependent beings, but one that does not manage to impose itself without resistance." The second aspect that is discussed is that of the risk of HIV infection. "As we attempt to prove in this book, the prevalence of unsafe sex among truckers, their lack of general knowledge about sexual disease transmittal, and the large number of sexual partners they have make them a high-risk group for the spread of the disease." The 14 chapters cover: "Theory of Machismo," "Methodology," "The Place of the Mushroom Dwellings," "The Rolling Bubble of Glass and Steel," "The Long Wait from Dawn to Dusk," "Sexual Discourses," "Sexual Culture and Truckers," "Bullying, or the Cult of Size," "Hypersexuality," "Obscenity and Intoxication," "Venereal Diseases and Condoms," "Prostitutes," "Prostitutes or Feminists," and "Homosexual Relations." This is an interesting and very revealing book that provides some insight on the sexual culture of Central American truck drivers. The stories are revealing and will naturally upset some readers. However, it reveals some aspects of the truckers life that had only been hearsay until now. A recommended book for all academic libraries.
1073. From Knowledge to Practice: STD Control and HIV Prevention, by Kathy Attawell, Heiner Grosskurth, edited by Lieve Fransen. 1999. Eurpean Commission, Directorate-General for Development, Rue de la Loi 200, 5-1049 Brussels, BELGIUM. 127p., bibliog. ISBN92-828-7407-9. Write for cost. http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg08/eu_hiv_aids/index.htm. (Descriptors: STDs; Prevention; Tanzania)
The European Commission supported the first community-based randomized controlled trial to asses the impact of an STD intervention on HIV in a developing country, in the Mwanza region of Tanzania. This book provides information about this trial, intended for health policymakers, planners and program mangers responsible for HIV/AIDS and STD control. The first two chapters provide a summary and background information. The next three chapters discuss the Mwanza intervention trial, its study and evaluation design, implementation, and results. The last two chapters provide future directions. The brief text is supported by 18 figures, tables and panels. There is a lengthy bibliography. This is a good research report that will provide information for future similar studies. Recommended for academic libraries.
1074. My Dangerous Desires: A Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home, by Amber L. Hollibaugh. 2000. Duke University Press, PO Box 90660, Durham, NC 27708-0660. 277p., bibliog., index. ISBN 0-8223-2625-6, 0-8223-2619-1pbk. $17.95pbk. (Descriptors: Lesbian; Social Conditions; Interviews; Feminism)
"Amber L. Hollibaugh is a lesbian sex radical, ex-hooker, incest survivor, gypsy child, poor-white-trash, high-femme dyke." She is also an award-winning film-maker, left political organizer, public speaker, and journalist. This book presents over 20 years of her writing. "She explores the concept of labeling and the associated issues of categories such as butch or femme, transgender, bisexual, top or bottom, drag queen, b-girl, or drag king." This is a fascinating and moving book that once you begin to read, you do not want to put it down. The book is not an AIDS-specific book but Amber is an AIDS activist, producing videos for the NYC Commission on Human Rights AIDS Discrimination Unit, worked with the Global Program on AIDS and was founding Director of the Lesbian AIDS Project at Gay Men's Health Crisis. She now works as a consultant on international and national health care, human rights, labor, and women's and gay issues. This is a recommended book for all public and academic libraries.
1075. EveryBody: Preventing HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among Young Teens, by Deborah Schoeberlein. 2000. RAD Educational Programs, PO Box 1433, Carbondale, CO 81623. 140p., illus. ISBN 0-9679256-0-6. $35.00. (Descriptors: Sexually Transmitted Diseases; Teenagers; HIV Prevention)
In 1992, Schoeberlein founded the nonprofit organization called Redefining Actions and Decision (RAD) Educational Programs expressly for the purpose of developing and implementing interactive HIV education. EveryBody is now the featured curriculum of a 5-year federally funded national dissemination project. She believes "that HIV prevention requires a radical approach"..."needing education that is compassionate and flexible, explicit and honest, direct and ambitious." The 24 sequential student-centered activities with guiding questions, step-by-step directions, assessment measures and lesson extensions provide an extremely successful and powerful HIV/STD education curriculum for 5th to 9th grade students.
The first 6 chapters cover developmental issues, using the text, recommended sequences of the activities, information about HIV and AIDS, information on STDs, and information on alcohol and other drugs. The activities make up the rest of the book covering bill of rights and responsibilities, building bodies, cells, bacteria and viruses, condom boxes, decision making, doorways, emotional and physical safety, gloves, HIV antibody test, HIV mutation, HIV replication, illegal drugs and HIV/STD, It could happen to me, level of risk, media messages, pennies, purple dye, risk-taking, social situations, STDS and pregnancy, talking about condoms with older children, talking about condoms with young teens, talking risk elimination and risk reduction and walk like activity. This is an excellent book that has received international recognition. It is highly recommended for all school libraries as well as public and academic curriculum libraries. It will bother some individuals who do not like this type of sex education to be taught to their children but this is one of the finest books of its kind that this reviewer has seen.