HIV

Estimates place the number of people living with HIV worldwide between 36 and 45 million, among them 2 to 3 million children, and each year brings another 4 to 7 million new infections. Few medically grounded guides to AIDS prevention have appeared in the past five years, a gap this volume addresses. Since the last such survey, researchers have tested a range of new programs and built a substantial body of evidence about what works.

The book concentrates on prevention strategies that rigorous studies have shown to be effective. Its central lesson is that no single approach can succeed everywhere, because the places and communities affected by the global epidemic differ in geography, population makeup, and cultural context. Prevention, the author argues, has to be matched to the setting in which it is delivered.