Surviving HIV/AIDS in the Inner City

Price (paper): $26.95
Price (cloth): $39.95  
Subtitle: How Resourceful Latinas Beat the Odds
Author: Sabrina Marie Chase
Subject: Latina/o Studies, Anthropology, Public Health
Paper ISBN: 978-0-8135-5355-9
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8135-4892-0
Pages: 240 pages, 3 tables, 8 graphs
Publication Date: February 2011
Series: Studies in Medical Anthropology

Surviving HIV/AIDS in the Inner City explores the survival strategies of poor, HIV-positive Puerto Rican women by asking four key questions: Given their limited resources, how did they manage an illness as serious as HIV/AIDS? Did they look for alternatives to conventional medical treatment? Did the challenges they faced deprive them of self-determination, or could they help themselves and each other?  What can we learn from these resourceful women? 

Based on her work with minority women living in Newark, New Jersey, Sabrina Marie Chase illuminates the hidden traps and land mines burdening our current health care system as a whole. For the women she studied, alliances with doctors, nurses, and social workers could literally mean the difference between life and death. By applying the theories of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu to the day-to-day experiences of  HIV-positive Latinas, Chase explains why some struggled and even died while others flourished and thrived under difficult conditions. These gripping, true-life stories advocate for those living with chronic illness who depend on the health care “safety net.” Through her exploration of life and death among Newark’s resourceful women, Chase provides the groundwork for inciting positive change in the U.S. health care system.

SABRINA MARIE CHASE is a medical anthropologist specializing in racial and ethnic health and health care disparities. She is a health care researcher at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.