HIV, Health & Your Community

HIV, Health and Your Community is a thorough, easy-to-understand guide for health workers around the world. Designed as a manual for people confronting the HIV pandemic in their communities, it is easily accessible to those with little medical or technical knowledge.

This comprehensive, easy to understand guide to combating HIV is equally useful in a rural village in southern Africa, a major city in Thailand, or a global health worker's backpack. Filled with real examples and stories and designed for people confronting HIV in places with few medical resources, it is easily accessible to those without advanced technical knowledge and without prior training in the prevention and care of people with HIV/AIDS.

Topics include

• biology of the virus
• strategies for prevention
• symptoms, testing, and counseling for people with HIV and their families
• Low cost care for people with HIV including administering medicine
• water purification, nutritional support, and pregnancy and breastfeeding for mothers with HIV
• and information on writing grant proposals for work on this topic

Risk factors for infection are discussed, along with practical suggestions for addressing risky behaviors that focus on community based solutions that are possible in poor communities. An appendix is provided for readers with medical training, containing detailed information on common HIV related illnesses and their treatments.

Reuben Granich, MD, MPH and Jonathan Mermin, MD, MPH have worked in several countries on various aspects of HIV and tuberculosis, including education, medical care, epidemiology,public policy and laboratory research.

Mona Sfeir, MA has a degree in children's literature and illustration. She is currently working on a cover for an upcoming book on a feminist critique of science and has exhibited her work in fine art shows in the San Francisco Bay Area and nationally.