Title: North Carolina & the problem of AIDS : advocacy, politics, & race in the South /
Authors: Inrig, Stephen.
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press,
Year: 2011
Subjects: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Minority Health; Homosexuality, Male; History, 20th Century; Health Status Disparities; African Americans; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome history; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome epidemiology; AIDS (Disease) North Carolina History.; AIDS (Disease) Social aspects North Carolina.; AIDS (Disease) Southern States History.; African American gays Diseases.; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome epidemiology North Carolina.; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome history North Carolina.; African Americans North Carolina.; Health Status Disparities North Carolina.; History, 20th Century North Carolina.; Homosexuality, Male North Carolina.; Minority Health North Carolina.; North Carolina
Abstract: "Thirty years after AIDS was first recognized, the American South constitutes the epicenter of the United States' epidemic. Southern states claim the highest rates of new infections, the most AIDS-related deaths, and the largest number of adults and adolescents living with the virus. Moreover, the epidemic disproportionately affects African American communities across the region. Using the history of HIV in North Carolina as a case study, Stephen Inrig examines the rise of AIDS in the South in the period from the early spread and discovery of the disease through the late nineties. Drawing on epidemiological, archival, and oral history sources, Inrig probes the social determinants of health that put poor, rural, and minority communities at greater risk of HIV infection in the American South. He also examines the difficulties that health workers and AIDS organizations faced in reaching those communities, especially in the early years of the epidemic. His analysis provides an important counterweight to most accounts of the early history of the disease, which focus on urban areas and the spread of AIDS in the gay community. As one of the first historical studies of AIDS in a southern state, North Carolina and the Problem of AIDS provides powerful insight into the forces and factors that have made AIDS such an intractable health problem in the American South and the greater United States"--
Contents: Introduction : In a place so ordinary : the problem of AIDS in North Carolina and the American South -- AIDS and the frightening future : the emergence of AIDS in North Carolina -- Making sure that this tragedy never happens again : AIDS organizing and North Carolina's gay community -- We ain't going to tell nobody : AIDS organizations and the challenge of diversity -- Black men die a thousand different ways : AIDS in African American communities -- The future of a futureless future : AIDS and the problem of poverty in North Carolina -- Get real. Get tested : AIDS as a chronic disease in the American South -- Conclusion : Watson and the shark : the past and future of AIDS in North Carolina and the American South.