Stories about HIV and AIDS fascinate me. They speak of our common humanity and our tragically all-too-common inhumanity towards each other. In fear, so many in power sought to sweep this disease and its victims under the rug, yet it pervaded to impact human life in almost every sphere. When AZT first showed promise and HAART later showed effectiveness, many breathed sighs of collective relief. Today, we live in an era of PEPFAR, where the US financially supports AIDS relief for Africa, and PrEP treatment, where prophylactic monthly shots can prevent the spread of HIV. The battle continues, but early casualties, as infectious disease physician Abraham Verghese reminds us, need their legacies to be preserved. They must tell us of their suffering and of our own physical and moral frailty. HIV is a deeply human disease.
This book is deeply moving and provocative. Verghese is honest with his own shortcomings and with his emotional attachment to those impacted by this disease. He tells stories of his patients and of his close involvement in their lives. This book contains both a personal memoir and short biographies of the patients that led him to devote his career to managing this disease. The story entices readers from the first page and eloquently leads them to its conclusion.
In the late 1980s, the era discussed in this book, no one knew how to handle AIDS, especially in rural settings. President Reagan was so frightened by the disease that he didn’t mention the word until 1987. This silence prevented Americans from processing their fears together. Only isolated situations, like that of Verghese’s patients when they formed a social group around the disease, provided hope and support. Big American cities, especially on the oceans, represented the sites of the most transmission and assistance, but Verghese illustrates that AIDS impacted even small towns like Johnson City. The viewpoint of small-town America in the late 1980s provides this book’s unique visage.
This book’s topic drew me in because I volunteer around HIV vaccine efforts in Tennessee. I was curious about how the disease evolved in my state of residence. My Own Country was a best-seller in its day, and I hope that it won’t become lost to history. It tells of a common public health history that cannot be forgotten. Certainly, students at East Tennessee State University can continue to study public health impacts of disease, and Verghese’s local account can inform about their local history. In a time when a urban-rural divide haunts our politics, this book reminds us that our lives in America – our fears and our fates – are intertwined more than we might suspect.
My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story
By Abraham Verghese
Copyright (c) 1994
Vintage Books
ISBN13 9780679752929
Page Count: 432
Genre: Memoir, Medicine
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