Ethics, Epidemiology, and Changing Perspectives on AIDS

This chapter highlights the current state of HIV/AIDS care that fits Lewis Thomas’s 1971 definition of a “halfway technology.” It explains halfway technology as an intermediate stage between “nontechnology” and as a supportive medical care that does little to affect the course of disease, while “high” or “transformative technology” depends on advances in basic sciences. It also clarifies that transformative technology included immunization, chemotherapy, and antibiotics, while halfway technologies included dialysis, organ transplants, and mechanical ventilation. The chapter focuses on AIDS, which is as much a concern in the twenty-first century as it was forty years ago. It elaborates how the AIDS epidemic is ravaging African countries, such as South Africa and Nigeria; spreading in parts of Asia, such as Thailand and the Philippines; in Eastern Europe in countries like Russia and Ukraine; and in Caribbean and Central American countries.