Scientific errors and controversies in the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic : how they slowed advances and were resolved / Scott D. Holmberg.

Westport, Conn. ; London : Praeger Publishers, 2008.

x, 228 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

1. Background -- About teamwork -- Sources of error and epidemiologic thinking -- Interpreting the relative value of studies -- The HIV/AIDS epidemic today -- 2. Causes and sources of AIDS -- Cytomegalovirus -- Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III) -- HIV-2, HTLV-IV (and...SIV and STLV...) -- Does HIV-2 protect against HIV-1? -- "Poppers" and Kaposi's Sarcoma -- African seine fever virus -- HIV does not cause AIDS -- The source of HIV and AIDS -- The River -- Other theories -- 3. Counting cases -- What is the future of AIDS? Modeling the past to estimate the future -- Estimating the impact of AIDS -- Idiopathic CD4-lymphocytopenia (ICL), or the "AIDS, not!" syndrome -- HIV reporting -- 4. Epidemiologic controversies -- Issues in sexual transmission -- Blood and blood products -- "Silent sequences" -- A Florida dentist -- "Safe" insemination -- 5. Unusual and unproven modes of HIV transmission -- "No identified risk" -- Health care workers -- The environment -- Insects -- Belle Glade -- Saliva and biting -- Food -- Sweat, tears, and urine -- Household transmission -- 6. Issues in prevention -- HIV testing -- The person at risk, or the person known to be HIV-infected? -- Preventing mother-to-infant spread -- Needle and syringe exchange ; condom provision -- Circumcision -- 7. Early drugs and biomedical interventions -- The "pre-zidovudine" drugs -- Experimental antiretroviral therapies now largely abandoned -- Zidovudine -- After zidovudine -- 8. The modern therapeutic era (after 1995) -- When to start therapy in HIV-infected people without symptoms -- Lipodystrophy -- Protease inhibitors and cardiovascular disease -- Early vaccines and microbicides -- Strategic treatment interruptions -- 9. Errors, their consequences, and their management -- Types of errors and their consequences -- Human bias -- Bureaucracy, the "killer bees," and other considerations about retarding research -- Journals -- Higher education -- Appendix. Antiretroviral drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2007.

Includes bibliographical references and index.