| Popis: |
Every story of an infectious disease outbreak contains many stories, each illuminating a different aspect of this powerful intersection between people and medical science. There is the patient's story, of a body under assault by microscopic invaders, and a struggle to recover and live. There is the germ's story, of how a bacterium or a virus spreads from its refuge in nature to invade the bodies of animals or people, traveling through the blood, settling in organs, and wreaking cellular havoc. There are the laboratory dramas, of masked or space-suited researchers growing and analyzing germs to identify, to characterize their habits, and finally to find the Achilles heel that enables an effective counterattack. There are the doctors' stories of grasping all available tools to diagnose and treat. When tools are lacking, it's a story about inventing new tools, at first crude and full of side effects, then later more sophisticated tools including targeted drugs and vaccines. There are tales of clinical trials, of researchers who partner with volunteers balancing hope of cure with risk of harm, which also contain undercurrents of ego and altruism. There are the company stories, of corporate officers who take these discoveries and gear up to test, manufacture, distribute, and—of course—profit from drugs or vaccines. There are the regulators' stories, of the Food and Drug Administration's attempts to balance the urgency of a green light for needed treatments with the mandate to uphold safety and meet the Hippocratic requirement to “First, do no harm.” And there are stories of political and financial motives here, as well. These perspectives—personal and political, social and financial—often clash. Some of the most compelling stories involve such conflicts. The global fight against AIDS is rife with clashes between scientific and social goals. One recent conflict is centered on the study of an AIDS treatment that might be used to prevent infection. The drug, called tenofovir, is being tested among people who are unable to or who choose not to avoid exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by means of condom use, sexual abstinence, or fidelity to one partner who is uninfected. |
