VV on AIDS in SA

Rakesh Bhandari bhandari at Princeton.EDU
Sun Mar 19 09:47:26 PST 2000


Has anyone yet read Paul Farmer's Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues (UC Press, 1999). The chapter "Culture, Poverty and HIV Transmission: The Case of Rural Haiti" seems to speak to concerns voiced in this tread.

I note this paragraph, though I have not read the book: "The progression of HIV disease depends on host variables such as age, sex, nutritional status; viral load; CD4-cell number and function; and concurrent disease. Concurrent illness can alter this progression in at least three ways: first any serious illness, including opportunistic infections (most notably tuberculosis), may hasten the progression of HIV disease; second, various diseases can heighten an individual's 'net state of immunosuppression,' rendering him or her increasingly vulnerable to infection; and, third, certain infections seems to increase the risk of *acquiring* HIV..." p. 144 Farmer directs the Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change at Harvard Medical School.

rb



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