Books
HIV/AIDS: The Facts and The Fiction
By Kam Williams
Special To The Skanner
News
“U
nfortunately, a series
of interlocking mis-
conceptions have dis-
torted scientific and public
perceptions of HIV and the AIDS
epidemic… Given a sober review,
the scientific literature is clear: (1)
New York City is the epicenter of
the AIDS epidemic; (2) the theory
that HIV came from monkeys is a
fallacy; and (3) the African AIDS
epidemic-as-holocaust never man-
ifested.
The goal of this work is to
reconfigure the conceptual para-
digm of the HIV/AIDS epidemic
such that resource allocations and
healthcare interventions work to
serve the benefit, and not the detri-
ment, of the populations at need.”
— Excerpted from the Preface
(pg. xiii)
A few years ago, I saw a docu-
mentary about AIDS which began
by asking which of a number of
places had the highest HIV infec-
tion rate. I was shocked to learn
that the correct answer to the ques-
tion was the only American city on
AIDS originally started in Africa
where it had infected millions of
victims for decades prior to cross-
ing the Atlantic and arriving on
these shores around 1980. That
piece of propaganda simply isn’t
true, according to Chris Jennings,
a seminal work which does an
excellent job of dispelling myths in
the hope of educating the populace
and encouraging politicians and the
medical community to reorder their
priorities.
the list, Washington, D.C., since
all the other choices were either in
Africa or the Caribbean.
I had unwittingly fallen prey to
the conventional wisdom which
has led most people to believe that
Page 8 The Portland Skanner May 16, 2012
a Harvard-educated medical writer
who has staked his career in the
field of HIV research.
He has devoted much of the last
20 years in quest of the truth about
the AIDS epidemic. The upshot of
that
herculean
effort
is
“HIV/AIDS: The Facts and The
Fiction,” a seminal work which
does an excellent job of dispelling
myths in the hope of educating the
populace and encouraging politi-
cians and the medical community
to reorder their priorities.
For example, the author argues
that because of the widespread
belief that Africa is the epicenter
of AIDS, a disproportionate
amount of resources are wasted
on circumcisions and/or anti-
retroviral drugs on patients there
who aren’t apt to be infected.
Meanwhile, the readily-winnable
fights against more lethal diseases
on the continent, like pneumonia
and diarrhea, go underfunded.
Such surprising revelations
abound in Jennings’ informative
reference text. Though academic
in nature, his encyclopedic treatise
nevertheless arrives augmented by
a helpful glossary which makes it
all accessible to the layman by
explaining the meanings of dozens
of such obscure terms as “cytotox-
ic,” ”immunoglobulin” and “neu-
rotropic.”
A priceless primer which cor-
rects plenty of prevailing miscon-
ceptions about AIDS merely by
accurately reporting medical evi-
dence rather than re-circulating
false rumors.