AIDS Doctors
Ronald Bayer(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 27. July 2000
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-0-19-512681-5 (ISBN)
Description
Today, AIDS has been indelibly etched in our consciousness. Yet it was less than twenty years ago that doctors confronted a sudden avalanche of strange, inexplicable, seemingly untreatable conditions that signaled the arrival of a devastating new disease. Bewildered, unprepared, and pushed to the limit of their diagnostic abilities, a select group of courageous physicians nevertheless persevered. This unique collective memoir tells their story. Based on interviews with nearly eighty doctors whose lives and careers have centered on the AIDS epidemic from the early 1980s to the end of the 1990s, this candid, emotionally textured account details the palpable anxiety in the medical profession as it experienced a rapid succession of cases for which there was no clinical history. The physicians interviewed chronicle the roller coaster experiences of hope and despair, as they applied newly developed, often unsuccessful therapies. Yet these physicians who chose to embrace the challenge confronted more than just the sense of therapeutic helplessness in dealing with a disease they could not conquer.
Reviews / Votes
"From the vantage point of 2001, it is difficult to remember the reactions which marked the advent of AIDS twenty years ago. This book brings back those years so vividly ... At the level of personal and professional experience, it provides a sensitive and compelling evocation of those strange times." Social History of Medicine, Vol 15, No 1More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
notes, glossary, index
ISBN-13
978-0-19-512681-5 (9780195126815)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Content
Acknowledgements; Introduction: Looking Backward; 1. Discovery and Commitment; 2. The Dark Years: Fear, Impotence, and Rejection; 3. Therapeutic Strivings, Therapeutic Stumbles; 4. Travel Agents for Death; 5. The Waning of the Epidemic?; 2000: An Epilogue; Appendix 1: Making an Oral History: A Methodological Note; Appendix 2: Biographical Notes on Physicians Interviewed; Notes; Glossary of Medical Terms; Index of Physicians Interviewed; Subject Index