Society for Medical Anthropology

A section of the American Anthropological Association

Academic Resources: Topical Resources

  • HIV / AIDS

research groups

research tools

  • AIDS and Anthropology Bibliography Resource Center from the AIDS and Anthropology Research Group
  • AIDS Book Review Journal
    An electronic journal reviewing books, videos, journal titles, and other materials covering AIDS, safer sex, and sexually transmitted diseases, published irregularly by the University of Illinois at Chicago Library.
  • AIDS Education Global Infomation Service (AEGIS)
    Through our keyword-searchable knowledgebase, AEGiS offers cutting edge information via HIV/AIDS specific publications and news sources from around the world. In addition, an array of reference materials are offered. As new aspects of HIV/AIDS arise, AEGiS will continue to extend its efforts towards the dissemination of potentially life saving information.
  • Comparative Prices of ARV Drugs Public and Private Sector (html and excel)
  • Eldis HIV/AIDS Resource Guide
    ELDIS is a gateway to information on development issues, providing free and easy access to wide range of high quality online resources. The site provides summaries and links to online documents, a directory of websites, databases, library catalogues and email discussion lists.
  • GlobalHealthFacts.org, global health data on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and more from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
  • Measure DHS, national and sub-national data on family planning, maternal and child health, child survival, HIV/AIDS/sexually transmitted infections (STIs), infectious diseases, reproductive health and nutrition.
  • Population mobility and HIV/AIDS (Eldis)
    The literature on HIV/AIDS and mobility addresses the causes and consequences of the many reasons that people have for moving, both temporarilyand permanently, either within their home country or abroad. This page collects research on the potential vulnerability of mobile populations to HIV/AIDS and on interventions to address the specific needs of these groups.
  • UNAIDS geographic information
    Regional HIV/AIDS information.
  • USAID Fact Sheet: Male Circumcision and HIV Prevention (pdf)
    The effect of male circumcision (MC) on risk of HIV infection – and the practice's impact on the spread of HIV across different populations – have for years been subjects of interest to epidemiologists and other researchers. HIV/AIDS and reproductive health program professionals have become increasingly interested in MC, and USAID is now supporting preliminary activities to investigate male circumcision as a potential tool in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

syllabi

organizations, projects, centers

  • Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS)
    The Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) at the University of California San Francisco is committed to maintaining a focus on prevention of HIV disease, using the expertise of multiple disciplines, and an applied and community-based perspective within a university setting.
  • CDC - Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP)
    CDC's HIV mission is to prevent HIV infection and reduce the incidence of HIV-related illness and death, in collaboration with community, state, national, and international partners.
  • Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA), School of Public Health, Yale University
    CIRA's mission is to support the conduct of interdisciplinary research focused on the prevention of HIV infection and the reduction of negative consequences of HIV disease in vulnerable and underserved populations nationally and abroad.
  • Harvard AIDS Initiative
    Established in 1988, the Harvard AIDS Initiative is dedicated to promoting research, education and leadership to end the AIDS epidemic in Africa and other resource-scarce settings.
  • HIV InSite
    HIV InSite's mission is to be a source for comprehensive, in-depth HIV/AIDS information and knowledge. The site has an extensive collection of original material, including the HIV InSite Knowledge Base, a complete textbook with extensive references and related links organized by topic. (See also the AIDS Research Institute (ARI), which coordinates and integrates all AIDS research activities at the University of California, San Francisco.)
  • International AIDS Economics Network
    IAEN focuses on the economics of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, providing data, tools, and analysis for researchers and policymakers working to define and implement effective AIDS policy.
  • IMPACT Project, Family Health International (FHI)
    Managed by FHI, the project is designed specifically to help USAID missions and bureaus support HIV/AIDS programs by increasing the capacity of local organizations—public and private (including community- and faith-based organizations)—to implement effective HIV/AIDS strategies.
  • Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
    The global mission of UNAIDS as the main advocate for worldwide action against HIV/AIDS is to lead, strengthen and support an expanded response to the epidemic.
  • The National Centre in HIV Social Research (NCHSR), University of New South Wales, Sydney
    The National Centre in HIV Social Research conducts research which describes and analyses the social understandings, meanings and practices of peoples, institutions and communities in relation to HIV, Hepatitis C and other communicable diseases.
  • The Program on the Social and Economic Impacts of the AIDS Epidemic, The Center for International Health, Boston University School of Public Health
    The multi-disciplinary program involves economists, clinicians, public health experts, and other social scientists in the U.S. and abroad. It has grown rapidly and is now one of the most important programs of the CIHD. Research results have been widely cited and been put to immediate use by researchers and analysts in Africa and elsewhere.
  • The Synergy Project
    The Synergy Project is a five-year, performance-based contract that provides technical assistance and services to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to design, evaluate, and coordinate HIV/AIDS programs and identify and disseminate lessons learned from these programs.
  • World Bank HIV/AIDS
    In many countries, HIV/AIDS is rapidly reversing the hard-won development achievements of the past 50 years. Consequently, fighting HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which together would halve the incidence of poverty, and broadly improve welfare by 2015.
  • YouthNet, Family Health International (FHI)
    YouthNet is a global program to improve reproductive health and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among people 10 to 24 years old. Most importantly, it is a collaboration with the young people whose lives it is designed to improve. But it also includes the energy, insight, and experience of parents, schoolteachers, employers, policymakers, the media, health professionals, nongovernmental organizations, religious and community leaders, and other youth networks.

clinical trials

  • AIDS Clinical Trials Information Service (ACTIS)
    Central resource for current information on federally and privately funded clinical trials for AIDS patients and others infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This service is a Public Health Service (PHS) project provided collaboratively by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Library of Medicine, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group
    The PACTG, a joint effort of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), encompasses the mission for HIV-infected pregnant women and children that the Adult AIDS Clinical Trial Group (AACTG), the Community Programs for Clinical Research on AIDS (CPCRA), the AIDS Vaccine Evaluation Group (AVEG), the Division of AIDS Treatment Research Initiative (DATRI), and the pharmaceutical industry-sponsored studies represent for HIV-infected adults.
  • also see SMA Takes a Stand: Clinical Drug Trials

publications

  • AIDS Care: Psychological and Socio-medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV
  • Culture, Health & Sexuality
  • Family Health International (FHI): key publications; fact sheets
  • UNAIDS Publications
  • UNDP HIV and Development Programme list of publications
  • WHO Epidemiological Fact Sheets by Country 2006
  • HIV in Predominantly Rural Areas of the United States (pdf) in Journal of Rural Health, Summer 2005: The report by Irene Hall and colleagues of CDC's National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention profiles the burden of HIV/AIDS in rural areas of the U.S. where poverty, unemployment, lack of education and other factors often are barriers to HIV services.
  • Global AIDSLink®
    A bimonthly, 24-page publication, every issue contains articles and regular features addressing current international HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment issues affecting people domestically, as well as in developing countries. International in scope, Global AIDSLink includes a comprehensive listing of events in countries around the world, as well as the latest posting of conferences. Researchers and activists report from the field the latest findings in their spheres. Published by the Global Health Council's Global AIDS Program.
  • Locked Doors: The Human Rights of People Living with HIV/AIDS in China (html | pdf)
    Widespread discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS is fueling the spread of the epidemic in China. This 94-page report is based on more than 30 interviews with people with HIV/AIDS, police officers, drug users, and AIDS outreach workers in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Yunnan province. Many people living with HIV/AIDS have no access to health care because hospitals refuse to treat them. Human Rights Watch found that at one hospital, the door to the AIDS clinic was actually padlocked. National laws discriminate against people with HIV/AIDS, and some local laws ban them from using swimming pools or working in food service. The police send drug users to detoxification centers, where they are forced to labor without pay to make trinkets for tourists. Instead of receiving help for their problem, they are driven underground, making it harder for the government to combat the AIDS virus. (September 3, 2003)
  • The Long-run Economic Costs of AIDS: Theory and Application to South Africa (pdf), World Bank, July 2003
    This report warns thatHIV/AIDS causes far greater long-term damage to national economies than previously assumed, for by killing mostly young adults, the disease is robbing the children of AIDS victims of one or both parents to love, raise and educate them, and so undermines the basis of economic growth over the long haul. This suggests that a country like South Africa could face progressive economic collapse within several generations unless it combats its AIDS epidemic more urgently.
  • Interventions to Reduce HIV/AIDS Stigma: What Have We Learned? (pdf)
    Lisanne Brown, Lea Trujillo & Kate Macintyre, Population Council, Horizons Program
    This paper reviews 21 interventions that have explicitly attempted to decrease AIDS stigma both in the developed and developing countries and 9 studies that aim to decrease stigma related with other diseases.
  • Phase I Report of the ABC Study: Summary of HIV Prevalence and Sexual Behavior Findings (MS Word)
    The USAID-supported ABC Study examines how prevention behaviors may have affected HIV prevalence and fertility patterns in three countries where HIV prevalence declined during the 1990s (Uganda, Zambia, Thailand) and in three countries where it appears not to have declined (Cameroon, Kenya, Zimbabwe). The Study's "Phase I" report1 compares levels and trends of behavioral indicators such as abstinence and age of sexual debut among youth, faithfulness in sexual relationships, multiple sexual partners, and condom use (especially with non-regular partners).

good links