AIDS and the Policy Struggle in the United States

This is an important book for political scientists, policymakers, and anyone interested in understanding the policy battles that have transformed the medical establishment, the pharmaceutical companies, and U.S. foreign policy. Patricia Siplon helps us understand the dynamics and dimensions of the U.S. government's response to the worldwide spread of HIV/AIDS. She clearly and concisely outlines the key players, their positions, and the process through which policy is formulated and implemented. -- Alan Berkman, MD, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University and founder of the Health Global Access Project Dr. Siplon's analysis of governmental and corporate HIV/AIDS policy struggles demonstrates the important point that while policy decisions may appear rational, or based upon objective criteria, they are generally in fact based upon who wins the policy contest. As she states, 'policy is the product of struggles between groups.' AIDS policy has especially been a reflection of value-based conflict, and Dr. Siplon investigates the nature of the values and self-interests that underlie these conflicts. AIDS and the Policy Struggle in the United States clearly and passionately reveals the values and interests of those engaged in the policy and resource allocation struggles that directly impact on the lives of people with HIV/AIDS domestically-and internationally. -- David Hoos, MD, assistant professor of clinical epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University

Looks at how medical treatments of AIDS have changed and grown; how blood policies were formed; how value-based debates raged and continue to rage over prevention; how communities developed to first respond to the crisis, and later organized to fight for health care; and, how foreign policy is being shaped.Lucid and compellingly written, Patricia Siplon has immersed herself in the history and ongoing firestorms of how AIDS policies are influenced, fought over, and enacted in the United States. "AIDS and the Policy Struggle in the United States" is equally as engrossing and as revealing in its own way as "And the Band Played On". With an initial chapter that clearly follows the tangled historical string from the first realizations of a medical emergency to today's overwhelming worldwide epidemical crisis, she goes on to look at how medical treatments have changed and grown; how blood policies were formed; how value-based debates raged and continue to rage over prevention; how communities developed to first respond to the crisis, and later organized to fight for health care; and, finally - now that AIDS is recognized for the global crisis it is - how foreign policy is being shaped. Invaluable for activists and anyone involved in fighting for the humane treatment of people with HIV/AIDS around the world, this is also an important and insightful guide to the how and what of public policy as it is fashioned out of the clay of U.S. democratic institutions.