Suchergebnisse

A response to three criticisms of "AIDS and Capitalist Medicine" (Hunt, Charles W., Monthly Review, 1988, Jan): Nick McCombie, "The 'North American' Medical System" (Monthly Review, 1988, Nov); Bob Sutcliffe, "AIDS and Civil Liberties: A Comment" (Monthly Review, 1988, Nov); & A. Joseph Layon & Robert D'Amico, "AIDS, Capitalism, and Technology" (Monthly Review, 1988, Dec). Issues discussed include: the "inhumanity" of the US medical system in its treatment of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS); the dangers of factor VIII as a treatment for AIDS in conjunction with hemophilia; the safety of blood banks & the necessity of donor screening; & the connection between AIDS, poverty, drug use, & other social problems. The need to enact fundamental changes in the US medical system is stressed. K. Hyatt

Epidemics such as acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) are historically specific. The AIDS epidemic occurs at a time when the US medical system faces a threefold crisis: (1) rapidly rising medical costs, (2) limited effectiveness due to reliance on individualistic & purely curative approaches, & (3) distribution of medical care primarily on the basis of ability to pay for insurance. All three crises are results of the structure of medicine as a highly monopolized industry in a capitalist society. A social analyses of the AIDS crisis thus must draw on radical critiques of medicine formulated over the past two decades, & must seek to transform US medical practice. W. H. Stoddard

An examination of the epidemic of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Africa, including a discussion of the comparative epidemiology of the African & North American AIDS epidemics, based in historical materialist epidemiology. The AIDS epidemic in East Africa is distinct, in both its clinical & epidemiological appearance, from the North American epidemic. AIDS is a disease of active heterosexuals in East Africa, & the opportunistic infections characteristic of AIDS are quite different. Causes for these differences are traced to dependency development &, in particular, the pattern of migratory labor typical of the Eastern African labor market. The practice of F genital mutilation & the transmission of AIDS virus are also mentioned; more research in this area is advocated. The African origins theory of the development of the AIDS virus is refuted & attributed to Western racism. In sum, the African AIDS epidemic is historically specific to the social & economic environment in which it occurs; it is a social & not a biological event. AA