Book description
In 1993, Helen Epstein, a scientist working with a biotechnology
company searching for an AIDS vaccine, moved to Uganda, where she
witnessed first-hand the suffering caused by the HIV virus. The
Invisible Cure, dramatic, illuminating and beautifully written,
recounts the struggle of international health experts, governments and
ordinary Africans to understand the devastating spread of HIV in
Africa, and traces how their responses to the crisis have changed in
light of new medical developments and political realities.
The AIDS epidemic in Africa is uniquely severe. It is partly a
consequence of the political, social, and economic upheavals of the
past century, which have left millions of Africans adrift in an
increasingly globalized world. Their poverty and social dislocation
have generated an earthquake in gender relations that has had
devastating consequences for the spread of the HIV virus. Epstein
argues that there are ways to address this crisis that may be simpler
than many people imagine. A deeply affecting story of scientific
breakthroughs and false starts, and of the human costs of policymakers
missteps and inaction, The Invisible Cure will change the way
we think about AIDS, a disease without precedent.
Helen Epstein has written about public health for various
publications, including the
New York Times
magazine,
Granta
, and the
New York Review of Books
. She has conducted research on reproductive health and AIDS in Africa
for various organizations, including the Open Society Institute, the
Rockefeller Foundation and Human Rights Watch. She obtained a PhD in
molecular biology from Cambridge University and an MSc in public health
from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She currently
lives in Brooklyn, New York.
