Reframing HIV and AIDS

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7423.1101

BMJ 2003;327:1101-1103 (8 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7423.1101

Education and debate

Reframing HIV and AIDS

Lara Stabinski, medical student¹, Karen Pelley, master of science candidate², Shevin T Jacob, medical student³, Jason M Long, medical student⁴, Jennifer Leaning, professor of international health²

¹ State University of New York at Buffalo, 45 medical Education Building, Buffalo NY 14214-3013, USA, ² Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA, ³ Oregon Health and Science University, School of Medicine, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, L102 Portland, OR 97239, USA, ⁴ Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA

Correspondence to: S Jacob sjacob@post.harvard.edu

Last month WHO declared the HIV/AIDS epidemic a global healthemergency. Should governments go one step further and treatit as a disaster?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Over the past 20 years, the public health community has learnta tremendous amount about the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Yet, despitewidespread discussion about the epidemic and some measurableprogress, the overall response has been insufficient: globally42 million people are already infected with HIV, prevalencecontinues to rise, and less than 5% of those affected have accessto lifesaving medicines.¹ In the face of this growing crisis,the World Health Organization has made scaling up treatmenta key priority of the new administration.² We argue that notonly is the HIV/AIDS epidemic an emergency, but its devastatingeffects on societies may qualify it as one of the most seriousdisasters to have affected humankind. As such, this crisis warrantsa full disaster management response.

According to the United Nations, a disaster is any "seriousdisruption of the functioning of a society, causing widespreadhuman, material or environmental losses which exceed . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

HIV/AIDS is indeed a colossal catastrophe: David Rasnick
bmj.com, 8 Nov 2003 [Full text]
What is there in a name?: Maulik V Baxi
bmj.com, 8 Nov 2003 [Full text]
The catholic church and AIDS: Frank J.J. Conijn
bmj.com, 12 Nov 2003 [Full text]
Re: The catholic church and AIDS: Chinyelu K. Lee
bmj.com, 19 Nov 2003 [Full text]
AIDS a Disaster? Or AIDS Science: David R Crowe
bmj.com, 20 Nov 2003 [Full text]
AIDS a Disaster? Or AIDS Science: Peter J Flegg
bmj.com, 21 Nov 2003 [Full text]
Re: HIV/AIDS is indeed a colossal catastrophe: Ed Rybicki
bmj.com, 21 Nov 2003 [Full text]
Ed Rybicki chose not to refute any of the facts: David Rasnick
bmj.com, 23 Nov 2003 [Full text]
Full support for BMJ Rapid Responses: Etienne de Harven
bmj.com, 23 Nov 2003 [Full text]
Re: Full support for BMJ Rapid Responses: Mike Foley
bmj.com, 24 Nov 2003 [Full text]
Holy Rollers: Peter Morrell
bmj.com, 26 Nov 2003 [Full text]
HIV: hypotheses and theories.: Peter J Flegg
bmj.com, 29 Nov 2003 [Full text]
Reframing AIDS from within: Mark Griffiths
bmj.com, 29 Nov 2003 [Full text]
Immunisation against H.I.V.: Paul.D. Hooper, et al.
bmj.com, 7 Dec 2003 [Full text]
Re: Immunisation against H.I.V.: Alexander H Huw
bmj.com, 8 Dec 2003 [Full text]
Using Padian is Making This All Too Easy. What the AIDS Denialists Need is NEW MATERIAL.: Tony Floyd
bmj.com, 9 Dec 2003 [Full text]
Re: Re: HIV/AIDS is indeed a colossal catastrophe: Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos, et al.
bmj.com, 11 Dec 2003 [Full text]
Re: Re: Immunisation against H.I.V.: Mark Griffiths
bmj.com, 11 Dec 2003 [Full text]
Re: AIDS a Disaster? Or AIDS Science: David R Crowe
bmj.com, 14 Dec 2003 [Full text]
Reframing or Inflaming?: John P Heptonstall
bmj.com, 21 Dec 2003 [Full text]
An apparently missing control experiment on HIV/AIDS: Etienne P. de Harven, et al.
bmj.com, 14 Mar 2004 [Full text]
Re: Ed Rybicki chose not to refute any of the facts: Ed P Rybicki
bmj.com, 17 Mar 2004 [Full text]
Re: An apparently missing control experiment on HIV/AIDS: Eleni Papadopoulos-Eleopulos, et al.
bmj.com, 23 Mar 2004 [Full text]
Re: Re: An apparently missing control experiment on HIV/AIDS: Brian T Foley
bmj.com, 28 May 2004 [Full text]