INTRODUCTION
by Jaime Sepúlveda Amor,
M.D.
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INTRODUCTION |
Appearence of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus - HIV infection and its corporal and clinical expression known as Adquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - AIDS, give place to one of the most important social phenomenons in the late XX century. Seen as the most stirring infectious disease in a global scale, its repercusions quickly went beyond the medical and biological spheres to stop at social, economic and political grounds. On the other hand, it was in the bio-medical field where most human and financial resources were concentrated due to the natural urgency of creating precise diagnose, therapeutical and effective methods, cost-effective control and prevention interventions. Progess in this matter gave rapid and trustworthy diagnose techniques and accelerated availability of effective but still costly drugs. Control and prevention interventions give place to change and use of condoms as the most effective strategies while a vaccine remains in the air like a long delayed promise.
On the social-economic-political ground, AIDS remains inside rich and poor countries agendas, due to the impact of the epidemic in the affected populations: children, women and young people, to its wide dissemination among people with different sexual orientations: heterosexuals, bisexuals and homosexuals, and its tendency to concentrate on the most helpless groups, poor and alienated people from each society. It shouldn't take us by surprise that the casual substratum of the epidemic is more within the lack of respect or in the human rights violation in the world than in pointed risk factors derivated from conduct or natural susceptibility.
On the other hand, derivative cost of already ill patients and health services prognosis of people living with the virus, transforms AIDS into the Trojan Horse of any health system. Due to the AIDS magnitude in poor countries, its impact on medical care and attention become more than catastrophic.
On the political ground it has and continues to motivate both, supporting and rejection reactions. We're very fortunate that in our country it's the supporting forces the ones that predominate and that they're less instances and institutions seeing AIDS as a deserved punishment for all of those who break moral rules.
AIDS is a prioritary public health problem and its care as well as its prevention deserve showing of multiple efforts, all in the indivudual, collective, familiar, communitary, public and private fields; from government institutions to the civil-society-emerged organizations. Response must be given to local, regional and national levels, and expand to reach a global level. Response has to be spontaneous and continuous and as informed as passional. It must be characterized for being a concious, voluntary, fighting, non-discriminatory and fair response. To achieve this, both individuals and government must have precise and scientific-grounded information, accesible and it has to cover al the knowledge spheres. It's so important to know the clinic manifestations as well as the transmission mechanisms; to know where the information and medical attention centres are; to identify psichological and familiar support networks as well as the diagnose centres; to recognize a drug's side effects as well as the need from specialized medical care; to have a term dictionary, an address book or a friends network understanding the problem who fight for a common goal.
Second edition of the 'SIDA Hoy' (AIDS Today) book joins the effort in the fight against AIDS with up-to-date information, necessary to the specialist, but also accesible to the general public. The range of information covered by this second edition goes from the clinical symptoms to the opportunistic infections, from a national services and care centres directory to the description of the bio-molecular diagnosis techniques. It talks about the CD4 cells as well as the "black kiss"; about Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta, USA, as well as Colectivo Sol in Mexico City; about the vibrator as well as the vaccine, the deluge, the orgasm and the AZT. There are plenty of addresses, focuses, visions, actors, organizations, drugs and remedies. There are also scientific references and ads, it talks about the caloric density and of sexuality. Describes side effects of tetracicline and also talks about "Love Kills", "Dangerous Contact", "Savage Nights" and "Philadelphia". There are norms, rules, declarations, briefs, penal codes and it includes clubs, "Padrinos" and "Michoacanos contra el SIDA".
It's all this what it talks about the "SIDA Hoy" book, it's what's going on with AIDS. That's a enthusiastic reason to introduce to you the second edition of this volume and to recognize the effort of the wide group of personalities, institutions, collectives and individuals who give their best effort to support the fight against AIDS in Mexico.
