The 10th edition of the Hopkins guide to AIDS care, Medical Management of HIV Infection, by John G. Bartlett, M.D., and Joel E. Gallant, M.D., M.P.H, mirrors a decade's history of medical successes and challenges.
The internationally renowned publication, updated annually, began in 1991 as a 28-page booklet with 10 ½ pages devoted to anti-HIV therapy as well as treatment of opportunistic infections and complications. It is now a 356-page book with more than 260 pages devoted to these topics.
"The jump from 28 to 356 pages reflects the revolution in AIDS medical care we've seen over the past 10 years," says Bartlett. "We started out with just a few lab tests and a few antiretroviral drugs that usually didn't work for more than a year. AIDS care now is extremely complex and best administered by doctors with a lot of experience in treating this disease."
Bartlett has been at the forefront of the medical care of AIDS since he became chief of the Infectious Disease Service at Johns Hopkins in 1980.
Bartlett and Gallant's book mirrors the success of medical science in changing AIDS care from a desperate, losing fight into a life-saving assault on one of the greatest pandemics in human history. The new edition has 300 references to publications in 2000-2001 indicating the velocity of new information in the field. But the 10th edition also shows that AIDS still poses challenges for healthcare workers. While the first edition has a single paragraph devoted to drug resistance, the 10th edition has 3 ½ pages on this topic.
"In some ways, the 10th edition reflects challenges we still face," says Gallant, associate director of the Johns Hopkins AIDS Service. "But even the section on resistance shows how much we've learned. AIDS and HIV infection is no longer a death sentence; it can now be treated as a chronic, manageable disease. Medical Management of HIV Infection can help clinicians to better manage this complex but highly treatable infection." Last year, 70,000 copies of the book were distributed.
Medical Management of HIV Infection is available for $8 through the Johns Hopkins AIDS Service Website: http://www.hopkins-AIDS.edu.
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions' news releases are available on an EMBARGOED basis on EurekAlert at http://www.eurekalert.org, Newswise at http://www.newswise.com and from the Office of Communications and Public Affairs' direct e-mail news release service. To enroll, call 410-955-4288 or send e-mail to bsimpkins@jhmi.edu.
On a POST-EMBARGOED basis find them at http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org and Quadnet at http://www.quad-net.com.