Against the odds : the story of AIDS drug development, politics, and profits /
Peter Arno and Karyn Feiden cut through the issues to tell the tragic, inspiring story behind the scenes of the AIDS crisis--how a diverse group of extraordinary people banded together to fight bureaucracy and greed to save lives. AIDS has been called the greatest public health menace of our time. B...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
HarperCollins,
[1992]
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Peter Arno and Karyn Feiden cut through the issues to tell the tragic, inspiring story behind the scenes of the AIDS crisis--how a diverse group of extraordinary people banded together to fight bureaucracy and greed to save lives. AIDS has been called the greatest public health menace of our time. But political and bottom-line agendas, coupled with fear, racism, and anti-gay sentiments, have made the battle against it a painful uphill struggle. During the first five years of the epidemic, Ronald Reagan never once uttered the word "AIDS" in public. George Bush did not see fit to announce a comprehensive AIDS policy. Ten years after the onset of the epidemic, some 130,000 American lives--more than twice the toll claimed by the Vietnam War--have been lost. Yet AZT and ddI remain the only approved drugs specifically intended to attack HIV, the virus widely believed to cause AIDS. Sweeping in scope, rich with personal drama, it tells the story of the development, testing, and marketing of such drugs as AZT, ddI, ganciclovir, pentamidine, and Compound Q. This is the tale of government officials and agencies who have delayed the development of life-saving and life-prolonging drugs, and of others who have bent and changed their own rules to get treatments more swiftly to patients desperate for them. It is also the story of pharmaceutical companies: some have gouged the public to enhance their profit pictures; others have taken a chance that compassion will pay off better than greed. It is the story of the activist and patient communities who have informed themselves about this epidemic more fully than any community ever has and who have now altered the course of government policy toward AIDS and other diseases with their creative, effective, and often heroic tactics. |
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| Item Description: | The Cushing Library/Women & Gender Studies copy was acquired as part of The Don Kelly Research Collection of Gay Literature and Culture. The Cushing Library/Women & Gender Studies copy is inscribed by Feiden to Don Kelly; contains 2 signed typewritten letters and 1 signed handwritten note from Feiden to Don Kelly. |
| Physical Description: | xviii, 314 pages ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-302) and index. |
| ISBN: | 0060183098 9780060183097 |