For gay men who are HIV-negative in a community devastated by AIDS, survival may be a matter of grief, guilt, anxiety, and isolation. In the Shadow of the Epidemic is a passionate and intimate look at the emotional and psychological impact of AIDS on the lives of the survivors of the epidemic, those who must face on a regular basis the death of friends and, in some cases, the decimation of their communities. Drawing upon his own experience as a clinical psychologist and a decade-long involvement with AIDS/HIV issues, Walt Odets explores the largely unrecognized matters of denial, depression, and identity that mark the experience of uninfected gay men. Odets calls attention to the dire need to address issues that are affecting HIV-negative individuals-from concerns about sexuality and relations with those who are HIV-positive to universal questions about the nature and meaning of survival in the midst of disease. He argues that such action, while explicitly not directing attention away from the needs of those with AIDS, is essential to the human and biological well-being of gay communities. In the immensely powerful firsthand words of gay men living in a semiprivate holocaust, the need for a broader, compassionate approach to all of the AIDS epidemic's victims becomes clear. In the Shadow of the Epidemic is a pathbreaking first step toward meeting that need.

By tracing the shadow of the epidemic over the last 30 years in Uganda and more broadly in the region, HIV and East Africa investigates the impact of the epidemic on people’s lives and livelihoods, placing the epidemic within the context of the social, political and economic changes that have occurred over the last three decades. Whilst it inevitably touches on loss and suffering, the message is also about managing the impact of an epidemic which has had a profound impact on many lives. When one looks for traces in southern Uganda, once thought to be the epicentre of the epidemic, it is hard to see any lasting impact at a community wide level. Delve deeper and there are scars to be found among families and patterns of change which are a direct result of the epidemic The book goes on to explore the effect of improved treatment and care on perceptions of the epidemic and concludes by putting HIV into the context of other disease outbreaks, reflecting on what we can learn from the history of other epidemics as well as the last 30 years of the HIV epidemic.

The 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 early 1990s, the disease spread rapidly, and by 2008 life expectancies had fallen by 12 years for men and 14 years for women. Since 2005, 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 25 years, Isak Niehaus reveals how the AIDS pandemic has been experienced at the village-level. 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 sub-Saharan Africa.

'A gay man could read this book as if his life depended on it - and perhaps it does' Andrew Holleran, author of Dancer from the Dance 'Poignant and achingly beautiful' The New York Times Even in our modern progressive world, it's not easy to be a gay man. While young men often come out more readily, even those from the most liberal of backgrounds still struggle to accept themselves and experience stigma, shame and difficulties with intimate relationships. They also suffer from ongoing trauma wrought by the AIDS epidemic, something that is all too often relegated to history. Drawing on a lifetime's work as a clinical psychologist, Walt Odets uses the stories of his patients as well as those of his own deep relationships with other gay men to illuminate how these difficulties may be overcome. From a 74-year-old who only felt able to come out after his wife had died, to the boy raised in a strict religious family who worked his way to San Francisco, to the middle-aged defence lawyer who left everything behind to embrace a new life, the experiences here explore everything from grief to survival, childhood pain to the definition of gay itself. Out of the Shadows shows us how a new way forward is possible through learning to accept ourselves and others as they are, and independently inventing our own lives.

Global Health Watch (GHW), now in its sixth edition, provides the definitive voice for an alternative discourse on health. It integrates rigorous analysis, alternative proposals and stories of struggles and change to present a compelling case for the imperative to work for a radical transformation of the way we approach actions and policies on health. It was conceived in 2003 as a collaborative effort by activists and academics from across the world, and is designed to question present policies on health and to propose alternatives Global Health Watch 6 (GHW6) has been coordinated by eight civil society organizations – the People's Health Movement, ALAMES, Health Poverty Action, Medico International, Third World Network, Medact, Sama and Viva Salud. With contributions from across the globe, GHW6 addresses key issues related to health systems and the range of social, economic, political and environmental determinants of health, locating decisions and choices that impact on health in the structure of global power relations and economic governance.

Tiredness, exhaustion, muscular pain, listlessness, shortness of breath with exertion, profuse sweating, morning stiffness, joint pains, concentration disorder, forgetfulness, depressive moods, aggressive behaviour, anxieties, visual disturbance, dizziness, sleeping disorder Toxoplasma gondii is a tiny parasite which infects 30 - 50% of the world's population. The symptoms listed above can result if it becomes chronically active - an alarming disease which affects far more people than has been historically assumed. In Germany about 800.000 patients could be affected, and it can be assumed that there are many more worldwide. Toxoplasma gondii is equipped with outstanding camouflage abilities, and often cannot be detected by our standard lab tests, and therefore the prevalence of Toxoplasma related diseases is vastly underestimated by medicine. The result is that many patients who suffer from this disease do not have a chronic active toxoplasmosis considered by their physician. Often these patients receive treatment for a supposed psychosomatic disorder, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, seronegative rheumatoid arthritis and many more rather than the treatment they need for their very real problem. This book shows, based on basic research and in a comprehensible and comprehensive way, how chronic active toxoplasmosis can be diagnosed and how health can readily be restored by the appropriate therapy. Many patients could have a significant benefit from this, if only medicine could free itself from the incorrect and outdated idea that Toxoplasma were harmless and that its activity could be diagnosed easily and securely by standard lab procedures.

A revealing account of how families adapt to living with a chronically ill child What is it like to live with a child who has a chronic, life-threatening disease? What impact does the illness have on well siblings in the family? Myra Bluebond-Langner suggests that understanding the impact of the illness lies not in identifying deficiencies in the lives of those affected, but in appreciating how family members carry on with their lives in the face of the disease's intrusion. The Private Worlds of Dying Children, Bluebond-Langner's previous book, now considered a classic in the field, explored the world of terminally ill children. In her new book, she turns her attention to the lives of those who live in the shadow of chronic illness: the parents and well siblings of children who have cystic fibrosis. Through a series of narrative portraits, she draws us into the daily lives of nine families of children at different points in the natural history of the illness—from diagnosis through the terminal phase. In these portraits, as family members talk about their experiences in their own words, we see how parents, well siblings, and the ill children themselves struggle, in different ways, to contain the intrusion of the disease into their lives. Bluebond-Langner looks at how parents adjust their priorities and their idea of what constitutes a normal life, how they try to balance the needs of other family members while caring for the ill child, and how they see the future. This context helps us understand how well siblings view the illness and how they relate to their ill sibling and parents. Since the issues raised are not unique to cystic fibrosis but are common to other chronic and life-threatening illnesses, this book will be of interest to all who study, care for, or live with the seriously ill.

In this issue of Psychiatric Clinics, guest editor Drs. Susan G. Kornstein and Anita H. Clayton bring their considerable expertise to the topic of Women's Mental Health. Each year, one in five women in the U.S. experience a mental health condition. Many of these conditions affect more women than men or affect women in different ways. In this issue, top experts discuss new research findings in women's mental health, enabling readers to make informed, thoughtful clinical decisions. - Contains 16 practice-oriented topics including COVID and women's mental health; perinatal depression; menopause and mood; racial/ethnic disparities and women's mental health; reproductive rights and women's mental health; and more. - Provides in-depth clinical reviews of women's mental health, offering actionable insights for clinical practice. - Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews.