Public Health - Recent Titles from Ohio University Press

Epidemics

Wed, 12 Sep 2012

Epidemics (2012)
The Story of South Africa’s Five Most Lethal Human Diseases

By Howard Phillips

This is the first history of epidemics in South Africa, lethal episodes that significantly shaped this society over three centuries. Focusing on five devastating diseases between 1713 and today—smallpox, bubonic plague, “Spanish influenza,” polio, and HIV/AIDS—the book probes their origins, their catastrophic courses, and their consequences in both the short and long terms. The impacts of these epidemics ranged from the demographic—the “Spanish flu,” for instance, claimed the lives of six percent of the country’s population in six weeks—to the political, the social, the economic, the spiritual, the psychological, and the cultural. Moreover, as each of these epidemics occurred at crucial moments in the country’s history—such as during the South African War and World War I—the book also examines how these processes affected and were affected by the five epidemics. To those who read this book, history will not look the same again.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/Epidemics.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.

A Practical Guide to HIV/AIDS in Africa

Sun, 01 Jan 2012

A Practical Guide to HIV/AIDS in Africa (2012)
The Disease, Its Prevention, and Basic Home Care

By Darrell E. Ward

A Practical Guide to HIV/AIDS in Africa: The Disease, Its Prevention, and Basic Home Care is a comprehensive primer about HIV/AIDS tailored for Africans. It draws on Darrell E. Ward's experience in southern and West Africa working with Africans fighting the AIDS epidemic and conducting HIV education. Ward describes the virus and the evidence concerning its origins, and explains HIV infection and its possible prevention and treatment. In addition, he suggests ways to overcome stigma and to educate young people about human sexuality and the threat of HIV.

Written with support from the American Foundation for AIDS Research, this guide provides comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention information and explains how vaccines work and how they are tested. A chapter on antiretroviral therapy describes the drugs that can control HIV/AIDS and that are becoming available in Africa through the World Health Organization. Another chapter describes the clinical trials process.

Filled with practical information about living with HIV and about caring for people with AIDS in resource-limited settings, A Practical Guide to HIV/AIDS in Africa is an indispensable reference for African medical students, nurses, social and health workers, journalists, and secondary-school science teachers, as well as HIV/AIDS-related nongovernmental organizations, school principals, workers for governments that conduct national AIDS programs, and people living with HIV/AIDS and their caregivers.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/082141657X.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.

Healing Traditions

Tue, 21 Oct 2008

Healing Traditions (2008)
African Medicine, Cultural Exchange, and Competition in South Africa, 1820–1948

By Karen E. Flint

In August 2004, South Africa officially sought to legally recognize the practice of traditional healers. Largely in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and limited both by the number of practitioners and by patients’ access to treatment, biomedical practitioners looked toward the country’s traditional healers as important agents in the development of medical education and treatment. This collaboration has not been easy. The two medical cultures embrace different ideas about the body and the origin of illness, but they do share a history of commercial and ideological competition and different relations to state power. Healing Traditions: African Medicine, Cultural Exchange, and Competition in South Africa, 1820–1948 provides a long-overdue historical perspective to these interactions and an understanding that is vital for the development of medical strategies to effectively deal with South Africa’s healthcare challenges.

Between 1820 and 1948 traditional healers in Natal, South Africa, transformed themselves from politically powerful men and women who challenged colonial rule and law into successful entrepreneurs who competed for turf and patients with white biomedical doctors and pharmacists. To understand what is “traditional” about traditional medicine, Flint argues that we must consider the cultural actors and processes not commonly associated with African therapeutics: white biomedical practitioners, Indian healers, and the implementing of white rule.

Carefully crafted, well written, and powerfully argued, Flint’s analysis of the ways that indigenous medical knowledge and therapeutic practices were forged, contested, and transformed over two centuries is highly illuminating, as is her demonstration that many “traditional” practices changed over time. Her discussion of African and Indian medical encounters opens up a whole new way of thinking about the social basis of health and healing in South Africa. This important book will be core reading for classes and future scholarship on health and healing in Africa.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/Healing+Traditions.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.

Heterosexual Africa?

Fri, 15 Aug 2008

Heterosexual Africa? (2008)
The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS

By Marc Epprecht

Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS builds from Marc Epprecht’s previous book, Hungochani (which focuses explicitly on same-sex desire in southern Africa), to explore the historical processes by which a singular, heterosexual identity for Africa was constructed—by anthropologists, ethnopsychologists, colonial officials, African elites, and most recently, health care workers seeking to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This is an eloquently written, accessible book, based on a rich and diverse range of sources, that will find enthusiastic audiences in classrooms and in the general public.

Epprecht argues that Africans, just like people all over the world, have always had a range of sexualities and sexual identities. Over the course of the last two centuries, however, African societies south of the Sahara have come to be viewed as singularly heterosexual. Epprecht carefully traces the many routes by which this singularity, this heteronormativity, became a dominant culture. In telling a fascinating story that will surely generate lively debate, Epprecht makes his project speak to a range of literatures—queer theory, the new imperial history, African social history, queer and women’s studies, and biomedical literature on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. He does this with a light enough hand that his story is not bogged down by endless references to particular debates.

Heterosexual Africa? aims to understand an enduring stereotype about Africa and Africans. It asks how Africa came to be defined as a “homosexual-free zone” during the colonial era, and how this idea not only survived the transition to independence but flourished under conditions of globalization and early panicky responses to HIV/AIDS.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/Heterosexual+Africa%3F.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.

The Radiology Handbook

Fri, 11 Aug 2006

The Radiology Handbook (2006)
A Pocket Guide to Medical Imaging

By J. S. Benseler

Designed for busy medical students, The Radiology Handbook is a quick and easy reference for any practitioner who needs information on ordering or interpreting images.

The book is divided into three parts:

- Part I presents a table, organized from head to toe, with recommended imaging tests for common clinical conditions.

- Part II is organized in a question and answer format that covers the following topics: how each major imaging modality works to create an image; what the basic precepts of image interpretation in each body system are; and where to find information and resources for continued learning.

- Part III is an imaging quiz beginning at the head and ending at the foot. Sixty images are provided to self-test knowledge about normal imaging anatomy and common imaging pathology.

Published in collaboration with the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, The Radiology Handbook is a convenient pocket-sized resource designed for medical students and non radiologists.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/The+Radiology+Handbook.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.

The African AIDS Epidemic

Tue, 15 Feb 2005

The African AIDS Epidemic (2005)
A History

By John Iliffe

This history of the African AIDS epidemic is a much-needed, accessibly written historical account of the most serious epidemiological catastrophe of modern times. The African AIDS Epidemic: A History answers President Thabo Mbeki’s provocative question as to why Africa has suffered this terrible epidemic.

While Mbeki attributed the causes to poverty and exploitation, others have looked to distinctive sexual systems practiced in African cultures and communities. John Iliffe stresses historical sequence. He argues that Africa has had the worst epidemic because the disease was established in the general population before anyone knew the disease existed. HIV evolved with extraordinary speed and complexity, and because that evolution took place under the eyes of modern medical research scientists, Iliffe has been able to write a history of the virus itself that is probably unique among accounts of human epidemic diseases. In giving the African experience a historical shape, Iliffe has written one of the most important books of our time.

The African experience of AIDS has taught the world much of what it knows about HIV/AIDS, and this fascinating book brings into focus many aspects of the epidemic in the longer context of massive demographic growth, urbanization, and social change in Africa during the latter half of the twentieth century. The African AIDS Epidemic: A History is a brilliant introduction to the many aspects of the epidemic and the distinctive character of the virus.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/The+African+AIDS+Epidemic.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.

A Second Voice

Wed, 15 Dec 2004

A Second Voice (2004)
A Century of Osteopathic Medicine in Ohio

By Carol Poh Miller

Doctors of osteopathy today practice side by side with medical doctors, employing the same diagnostic and curative tools of scientific—with a difference. A Second Voice: A Century of Osteopathic Medicine in Ohio is the story of that difference. Focusing on the historical experience of a pivotal midwestern state, historian Carol Poh Miller illuminates struggles common to osteopathic medicine nationwide as it fought to secure its place in American health care.

First promulgated by Dr. Andrew Taylor Still in 1874, osteopathy was a reaction against the primitive medical practices of the period. Believing that the body had its own natural curative powers, Still manipulated vertebrae to free circulation and to remove pathology. Early osteopaths endured discrimination, as orthodox medicine and its allies sought to prevent the establishment of Still's new healing method.

Written in conjunction with the one-hundredth anniversary of the Ohio Osteopathic Association, A Second Voice traces the origins and growth of the profession in Ohio. It recounts the early legal battles, the establishment of separate osteopathic hospitals, and the hard-fought campaigns to win equal practice rights and to build a state college of osteopathic medicine. Finally, it reconsiders the notorious murder trial of Cleveland osteopathic physician Sam Sheppard in the context of his family's contributions to the osteopathic profession and a prosecution that, evidence has shown, fingered the wrong man.

A Second Voice is a valuable addition to the history of medicine in Ohio and the nation.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/A+Second+Voice.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.

The Children of Africa Confront AIDS

Tue, 28 Oct 2003

The Children of Africa Confront AIDS (2003)
From Vulnerability to Possibility

Edited by Arvind Singhal and W. Stephen Howard

AIDS is now the leading cause of death in Africa, where twenty-eight million people are HIV-positive, and where some twelve million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS. In Zimbabwe, 45 percent of children under the age of five are HIV-positive, and the epidemic has shortened life expectancy by twenty-two years. A fifteen-year-old in Botswana or South Africa has a one-in-two chance of dying of AIDS. AIDS deaths are so widespread in sub-Saharan Africa that small children now play a new game called “Funerals.”

The Children of Africa Confront AIDS depicts the reality of how African children deal with the AIDS epidemic, and how the discourse of their vulnerability affects acts of coping and courage. A project of the Institute for the African Child at Ohio University, The Children of Africa Confront AIDS cuts across disciplines and issues to focus on the world's most marginalized population group, the children of Africa.

Editors Arvind Singhal and Stephen Howard join conversations between humanitarian and political activists and academics, asking, “What shall we do?” Such discourse occurs in African contexts ranging from a social science classroom in Botswana to youth groups in Kenya and Ghana. The authors describe HIV/AIDS in its macro contexts of vulnerable children and the continent's democratization movements and also in its national contexts of civil conflict, rural poverty, youth organizations, and agencies working on the ground.

Singhal, Howard, and other contributors draw on compelling personal experience in descriptions of HIV/AIDS interventions for children in difficult circumstances and present thoughtful insights into data gathered from surveys and observations concerning this terrible epidemic.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/The+Children+of+Africa+Confront+AIDS.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.

Aquamarine Blue 5

Sat, 30 Nov 2002

Aquamarine Blue 5 (2002)
Personal Stories of College Students with Autism

Edited by Dawn Prince-Hughes

This is the first book to be written by autistic college students about the challenges they face. Aquamarine Blue 5 details the struggle of these highly sensitive students and shows that there are gifts specific to autistic students that enrich the university system, scholarship, and the world as a whole.

Dawn Prince-Hughes presents an array of writings by students who have been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome or High-Functioning Autism, showing their unique ways of looking at and solving problems. In their own words, they portray how their divergent thinking skills could be put to great use if they were given an opportunity. Many such students never get the chance because the same sensitivity that gives them these insights makes the flicker of fluorescent lights and the sound of chalk on the board unbearable For simple—and easily remedied—reasons, we lose these students, who are as gifted as they are challenged.

Aquamarine Blue 5 is a showcase of the strength and resilient character of individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome. It will be an invaluable resource for those touched by this syndrome, their friends and families, and school administrators.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/Aquamarine+Blue+5.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.

The Guide to EKG Interpretation

Fri, 30 Aug 2002

The Guide to EKG Interpretation (2002)
Revised Edition

By John Brose, John C. Auseon, Daniel Waksman and Michael J. Jarosick

The Guide to EKG Interpretation is designed as a practical guide for primary care physicians, students, nurses, physician's assistants, and anyone else who interprets electrocardiograms as part of his or her practice.

Unlike most other textbooks used to identify and interpret EKG tracings, The Guide to EKG Interpretation is designed to function in a dual role. If the reader wishes to look up bundle-branch blocks, there is a reference section discussing this abnormality in detail. If, however, the clinician notices only that there is QRS widening on the EKG, the problem-solving section of the handbook will help lead the clinician to that abnormality.

This combination of functions and a convenient pocket size make The Guide to EKG Interpretation a useful pocket companion for the busy clinician or student.

Based on a prototype and revised according to surveyed use, The Guide to EKG Interpretation is the first in a series of White Coat Pocket Guides, designed for practitioners in the field, and published in collaboration with the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/The+Guide+to+EKG+Interpretation.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.