Tuesday, December 2, 2008

The Political Economy of AIDS

The Political Economy of AIDS
Brian K. Murphy


Excerpt

..."Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), one of the supposedly rare diseases that most
definitively marked the onset of AIDS in North America, is neither new nor so very rare.
Identified in 1911, vulnerability to PCP is related to, among other things, prolonged
Vitamin A deficiency in drug addicts and alcoholics, and has been commonly diagnosed
among the malnourished in the Global South, particularly among young children in
Africa and Asia suffering from Kwashiorkor. (Root-Bernstein pointedly asks, “Why do
we call a patient who dies of Pneumocystis pneumonia [independent of HIV] unfortunate,
but one who dies of Pneumocystis pneumonia and HIV an AIDS tragedy?”)..."

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