AIDS in the shadow of biomedicine: inside South Africa's epidemic

摘要

In his new book, AIDS in the Shadow of Biomedicine, Isak Niehaus starts each chapter with a story. For example: 1. in 1999, a migrant labourer working in Johannesburg returns home on becoming ill, but is rejected by his wife, by nursing staff at a local treatment centre, and eventually by his parents too. They leave him alone in a spare room, refuse to speak to him and bring him food just once a day. 2. with the arrival of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), an HIV-positive campaigner gives out an optimistic message of healing, but is unable to omit the accusatory undertones that lie within so much of the language surrounding HIV/AIDS, where sufferers are blamed for their sexual practices.