Collect AIDS In The Shadow Of Biomedicine: Inside South Africa’s Epidemic Constructed By Isak Niehaus E-Text

Bushbuckridge region of South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world, Having first arrived in the area in the earlys,

the disease spread rapidly, and bylife expectancies had fallen by twelve years for men and fourteen years for women.
Since, public health facilities have increasingly offered free HAART highly active antiretroviral therapy treatment, offering a degree of hope, but uptake and adherence to the therapy has been sporadic and uneven.


Drawing on his extensive ethnographic research, carried out in Bushbuckridge over the course of twentyfive years, Isak Niehaus reveals how the AIDS pandemic has been experienced at the villagelevel.
Most significantly, he shows how local cultural practices and values have shaped responses to the epidemic, For example, while local attitudes towards death and misfortune have contributed to the stigma around AIDS, kinship structures have also facilitated the adoption and care of AIDS orphans.
Such practices challenge us to rethink the role played by culture in understanding and treating sickness, with Niehaus showing how an appreciation of local beliefs and customs is essential to any effective strategy of AIDS treatment.


Overturning many of our assumptions on disease prevention, the book is essential reading for practitioners as well as researchers in global health, anthropology, sociology, epidemiology and scholars interested in public health and administration in subSaharan Africa.
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