First published in 2002, this edition is fully revised to take into account recent facts and developments in the field. All statistics and evidence have been updated and their meanings reconsidered. Latest developments in vaccines, anti-retroviral (ARV) treatments and microbicides are discussed along with information about the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. A revised and extended bibliography is included, and each chapter contains key readings and websites for further research and discussion.

The book argues that HIV/AIDS is an epidemic of globalisation. Its trajectory can be directly linked to global inequality. Globalisation determines the scale andscope of HIV/AIDS, and HIV/AIDS will shape international political, economic and social relations in the first decades of this century. Above all, HIV/AIDS shows the bankruptcy of national and international public health policy.

The authors look at the forces driving the epidemic and describes its impacts. They argue that HIV/AIDS is a long wave disaster that is now unfolding inexorably. Conventional measures of impact do not adequately describe its scale. They show that HIV/AIDS is leading to unprecedented impoverishment that will be felt for generations.