Until the Cure

Although the AIDS epidemic has generated worldwide concern, very little attention has been paid to its impact on the increasing numbers of women who have been infected. Women with HIV disease are in many ways a unique group: their clinical symptoms can differ from those of men, and because they are the ones who bear and usually care for children, they have different psychosocial concerns and needs. This book—written by experts in the fields of law, medicine, nursing, public health, social work, ethics, and psychiatry, and enriched by personal accounts from women who have been living with the disease—is an essential guide to the medical and social treatment of women with HIV.

The book begins by discussing clinical care for women with HIV, providing information on how the disease affects women and what type of gynecological treatment, reproductive counseling, obstetrical management, and neuropsychiatric considerations are important. Authors examine why women have been excluded from research trials of new therapies and argue that women must be included in future trials. One chapter explores ethical issues, such as the reproductive rights of women with HIV, and another is devoted to legal conflicts surrounding such issues as discrimination, government benefits, and custody rights. The final third of the book deals with ways to deliver support services to HIV-positive women and their families and describes a family-centered, community-based, comprehensive care model. The book concludes with suggestions for programs and policies that will lessen the incidence of HIV.