HIV Health and Your Community

HIV, Health and Your Community:
A Guide for Action
by Reuben Granich and Jonathan Mermin
Updated 2006
248 pages, illustrated
English ed. ISBN: 0-942364-40-6

HIV, Health and Your Community is a thorough, easy-to-understand guide for health workers throughout the world. Designed as a manual for people confronting the HIV pandemic in their communities, it is easily accessible to those with little medical or technical knowledge. Topics range from the biology of the virus and the epidemiology of the disease to the mechanics of designing prevention programs and writing grant proposals.

The current printing includes updated information on: ART, cotrimoxazole and other medicines; water purification, nutritional support and other strategies for care in low-resource areas; HIV testing; HIV in pregnancy and breastfeeding; and current data on HIV prevalence around the world.

Related Materials

• Download the pdf of the entire book on our Free Downloads page.
• New editions available in Bengali, Chinese, Indonesian, and Urdu! Visit our translations page.
• If you are interested in information about HIV/AIDS, you might also be interested in Where There Is No Dentist, which has an extensive chapter on Oral Health Care and HIV/AIDS. You may also be interested in Where Women Have No Doctor, which has a chapter specifically focused on Women and HIV/AIDS.
• (Spanish ed. coming soon)

What people have to say about HIV, Health and Your Community:

"...of great importance as a guide and manual for primary health care workers as well as lay persons who may have an interest in or be involved personally with HIV."
-B.D. Schoub, Director, National Institute for Virology, South Africa

"This book is clear, concise, and accessible for the target audience. Its format and style is appealing, and I greatly commend it for making a difficult subject so easily digestible."
-Bunmi Makinwa, Communications Adviser
UNAIDS

"Thank you, and thanks to the Hesperian Foundation for publishing/distributing the excellent new book, HIV, Health, And Your Community: A Guide For Action. I received mine through the Firelight Foundation two days ago, and I must say that I am extremely impressed. Although I have come across a lot of how-to manuals in the field, this is definitely one of the most user-friendly and cross-culturally sensitive ones I have ever seen. Well done! Thank you. This is a real contribution to our work."
-Lucy Y. Steinitz, National Coordinator
Catholic AIDS Action, Namibia

"I just returned from Nigeria where we trained 22 youth from eight local organizations on HIV/AIDS information and counseling for the telephone hotline we just installed in Lagos... We used your book as a supplement resource to our Training Manual. Your book augmented our materials on co-occurring infections and complications associated with HIV/AIDS, etc.... The book was rated as 'excellent' by participants (and) we distributed extra copies to our regional offices. Personally, I bought two additional copies for my brothers with both instructions and pleas to read the book."
-Chamberlain Diali, Joint Program Officer
Academy for Educational Development (Washington DC) and Johns Hopkins University's Center for Communications (Baltimore)

"I found the book to be very thorough and was particularly happy to see the HIV test chapter - this is an area where our programs face many questions... As I'm sure you are aware, one of the challenges of providing resource material - even very user-friendly resource material is ensuring its effective use. As World Neighbors focuses more on HIV/AIDS in the coming year, we feel it is important that this type of guide be supported by some additional hands-on training. In East Africa, our program has worked with partners in the area of developing effective counseling skills and also has become more involved in youth programming and we find it very useful to have a resource guide, like this one, which is so clearly structured to support training activities."
-Catharine McKaig, DrPH, MS, Reproductive Health Coordinator
Africa Region, World Neighbors

"...as I write, your guide is open on my desk because friends in Thailand and I are writing a home care and community support project and I faxed them Chapter 13 to help them structure their ideas! I love the book, from the language to the illustrations and find it really comprehensive, understandable and most of all practical and useful from the point of view of people on the ground who need precisely this type of information to enhance their work. Congratulations, I'm truly impressed by the accessibility, thoughtfulness and inclusiveness of your work here."
-Karyn Kaplan, HIV Program Coordinator
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC)

"This book is easy to read and understandable. It provides useful data related to HIV/AIDS in a simple terminology. It will help the primary health care workers who work in the community as well as other medical personnel to further understanding to the general public."
-Dr. Khanchit Limpakarnjanarat
The HIV/AIDS Collaboration, Nepal

"The book(s) came at a very crucial time in our organization as we are set to hold a seminar on gender and HIV/AIDS in Nigeria by the second week in September. Thanks for your wonderful support and pray that collaboration with your foundation will go a long way in addressing the health issues in or community..."
-Nwadihi Faith, Executive Director
Koyenum Immalah Foundation, Nigeria