During Elizabeth Pisani’s career working with HIV/AIDS, she has conducted research on HIV/AIDS prevention in diverse communities, served as an advisor for several nations’ Ministries of Health, and provided policy advice to several world renowned public health organizations, including UNAIDS, WHO, the World Bank, and the CDC. Her 2008 book, The Wisdom of Whores, Pisani discusses her experiences dealing with HIV/AIDS in Indonesia, China, East Timor, and the Philippines. In the prologue, she quickly produces a strong assertion:
“Science does not exist in a vacuum. It exists in a world of money and votes, a world of media enquiry and lobbyists, of pharmaceutical manufacturing and environmental activism and religious and political ideologies and all the other complexities of human life.”
Pisani threads this theme throughout the book as she describes and criticizes policies and programs aimed to deal with (or avoid) the HIV/AIDS problem. Pisani frequently reminds readers that epidemics of the human immunodeficiency virus are started through two modes of transmission: sex and needle injection. Often, the people involved in HIV transmission are frequent participants in the sex industry or long-term drug injectors. Pisani claims that governments and non-profit organizations frequently avoid sex and drug injection outreach programs in order to dodge the political and religious conflicts of dealing with the “wicked people” who participate in these behaviors.
Pisani brings up provocative and difficult questions facing the public health realm. To what extent is our work influenced by economical, cultural, and political factors, rather than by evidence based in research? Especially when we are working in other countries, how far can we go to enforce a public health policy that might conflict with certain religious beliefs? Do those that participate in “sinful” or “wicked” behaviors deserve the same right to health and wellness as everyone else?
Pick up the book and share your opinion. These issues are as difficult as they are pertinent to the field of public health and healthcare ethics, especially in the global context. Here’s the link to Pisani’s blog:
http://www.wisdomofwhores.com/
…and you can find her book here (Amazon).
