Brazil's public policy response to the AIDS epidemic preceded those of many developing countries. During my tenure as President, in 1996, Brazil adopted a law guaranteeing free and universal access to AIDS treatment for all people living with HIV/AIDS. Brazil became the first developing country to provide publicly-financed AIDS treatment for all people living with HIV/AIDS. We now have one of the world's most successful AIDS programs that is considered a model for other dev- oping countries. Today, 185,000 people receive life-saving AIDS cocktails in Brazil, and thousands of lives have been saved. But this was not an easy battle. There were many challenges along the way. Twenty years ago, Brazil's achie- ments today might have seemed impossible. During the 1980s, in Brazil, as elsewhere, there was overwhelming stigma associated with AIDS; people living with HIV often lost their jobs and died quickly before the advent of life-saving antiretroviral drugs. Brazil's AIDS movement wasextraordinarily important in promoting progressive AIDS policies; associations of people living with HIV were the first to denounce pervasive AIDS-related discri- nation and called public attention to the importance of AIDS. Activists protested in the streets for over a decade, engaged the media, and framed AIDS as a human rights issue.
From the reviews:
"Amy Nunn's book The Politics and History of AIDS Treatment in Brazil maps the political landscape that led to this landmark in public health policy, and the subsequent growth of Brazil's AIDS treatment programme into one of the largest and most equitable in the world. ...the story Nunn tells is absolutely fascinating." -Elizabeth Pisani, The Lancet, Vol 374
"This is an exceptional academic work, one that deserves to be widely read, and that in my opinion will come to be considered the leading historical study on the social and policy response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Brazil - and one of the major policy studies on the response to the AIDS epidemic anywhere in the world." -Richard Parker, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
"The historical accuracy and completeness of the material presented is exceptional. The general lines of argument and analyses are insightful, and the quality of the historical data overall is outstanding. The Politics and History of AIDS Treatment in Brazil deserves to be read by scholars in fields ranging from public health to international relations, development studies, the history of medicine and similar fields. It is a book that cuts across disciplinary divides and provides new insight into the social and political history of Brazil." (Richard Parker, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 30 (4), 2011)
"Amy Nunn's book The Politics and History of AIDS Treatment in Brazil maps the political landscape that led to this landmark in public health policy, and the subsequent growth of Brazil's AIDS treatment programme into one of the largest and most equitable in the world. ...the story Nunn tells is absolutely fascinating." -Elizabeth Pisani, The Lancet, Vol 374
"This is an exceptional academic work, one that deserves to be widely read, and that in my opinion will come to be considered the leading historical study on the social and policy response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Brazil - and one of the major policy studies on the response to the AIDS epidemic anywhere in the world." -Richard Parker, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
"The historical accuracy and completeness of the material presented is exceptional. The general lines of argument and analyses are insightful, and the quality of the historical data overall is outstanding. The Politics and History of AIDS Treatment in Brazil deserves to be read by scholars in fields ranging from public health to international relations, development studies, the history of medicine and similar fields. It is a book that cuts across disciplinary divides and provides new insight into the social and political history of Brazil." (Richard Parker, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 30 (4), 2011)
"Amy Nunn's book The Politics and History of AIDS Treatment in Brazil maps the political landscape that led to this landmark in public health policy, and the subsequent growth of Brazil's AIDS treatment programme into one of the largest and most equitable in the world. ...the story Nunn tells is absolutely fascinating." -Elizabeth Pisani, The Lancet, Vol 374 "This is an exceptional academic work, one that deserves to be widely read, and that in my opinion will come to be considered the leading historical study on the social and policy response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Brazil - and one of the major policy studies on the response to the AIDS epidemic anywhere in the world." -Richard Parker, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University