2012-16 - Tinderbox, by Daniel Halperin and Craig Timberg

16 - Tinderbox, by Daniel Halperin and Craig Timberg, 432 pages, Penguin Press, 2012
WHY I PICKED IT: Recommended by Stephen Lewis
ELAPSED TIME: 3 weeks
RATING: Very Good

If you're interested in public health, AIDS, or just want a good bit of knowledge, this book was a really good read.  Halperin and Timberg share the history of how AIDS was spread through the world, and offer nuanced strategies to tackle it.

Nuggets from the book:
- AIDS is not a pandemic, but rather multiple epidemics (in that it is spread differently in different contexts).
- It never was as bad as UNAIDS made it out to be... that 25% of Botswanans have HIV doesn't mean that it will spread the world at that pace.  And in fact, will hardly travel through Africa at that pace.
- That it is not as bad as it could have been doesn't mean that it isn't a deadly disease that must be tackled with the best the world has to offer.
- A single solution isn't going to work in every context.  Circumcision is an effective tool to stop the transmission between heterosexual partners, but will do little to reduce the spread between homosexual males who will have tearing causing increased exchange of fluids during anal sex.
- In contexts where potable water is in short supply, a mother with HIV is better off offering her child breast-milk (and the risk of HIV spread) rather than the much higher risk of losing her child to diarrhea caused by dirty water.

A worthwhile read!