Product Description
Everything you need to know about first-aid for when you need to know it!Practical advice for the on-the-go outdoorsman, this field-friendly guide is essentialfor anyone interested in first-aid preparation and care. Here is adviceuseful on a hike or for any fishing trip, including step-by-step instructions ondealing with fractures, suturing wounds, treating eyes and ears, managing allergicreactions, and more. With common sense advice, and in a handy, portablepackage, this is one little book that no one should be without in a campsite or intheir forest hideaway. 35 color illustrations ... Read more

Product Description

An Insider's Guide that Provides the Information You Need to Impress on the Wards and Succeed in the Clerkship!

• The only student-to-student, step-by-step guide to clerkship success
• Hundreds of recently tested high-yield topics from shelf exams and the USMLE Step 2
• Exam, Wards, and Typical Scenario boxes for last-minute review
• Insider tips for outstanding performance on the wards and exams
• "Classifieds" do the research for you, featuring high-yield websites and top extracurricular opportunities and scholarships
• Bonus: Pocket-sized tear-out cards with essential wards information!

Online Reviews of the First Edition:

***** [five stars] "All my attendings and residents during my medicine clerkship commented that my fund of knowledge was excellent. Everyone gave me honors, and it was literally all because of this book ... GET THIS BOOK!"

**** [four stars] "... Highly distilled, has quick easy-to-read facts/pearls, and leaves out the crud. I lost mine but I am constantly wanting to go back and review it. I may just buy it again, even though I am done with my Medicine rotation and I am pursuing Surgery."

***** [five stars] "Gives you the key facts about many diseases ... information that will help you answer questions during rounds and on exams ... It's easy to get through, which is important since there's so much to learn during the Internal Medicine rotation (and not enough time!)"

Customer Reviews (12)

Excellent resource
This is an excellent resource for your needs in Internal Medicine rotation.It delivers pertinent and well organized information.It also provides "pearls" relating to each subject area that bring the information down to practical application.It should not be your only source but definitely will complement the others.

Whats going on.
Well, I have to say errors.I dont know who fact checked this book but I hope it wasn't a doctor.How many errors can one book have?I am only half way through and I have found at least 10.These are not small spelling or grammer errors.They are errors that could get someone killed.How about coagulation factors all being increased in DIC? or TIBC being decreased in iron def. anemia?The book should be returned to the publisher.My words of advice, read something else if you want to learn something correctly.

decent outline - many factual mistakes
This book follows the standard first aid format, serving as a decent outline of the material you'll need to know for the medicine clerkship and shelf. It's a great review tool if you already have a grasp of the material. However, it completely skims over underlying concepts focusing on teaching buzzwords and quick associations, so not a great text to use as your primary teaching tool if you want to learn the material in any greater depth than cramming.

Additionally, the second edition has a lot of errors, both typos and factual. Some winners include stating that Plasmodium ovale is the cause of Tinea Versicolor (it causes maleria), and telling you to use cefixime for Pseudomonas coverage (use ceftazidime or a 4th generation cephalosporin)

Great for overview
I would recommend this book for a good review but not as the primary source of information.

Not the best choice for medicine clerkship and for USMLE step 2 CK.
You can read my comparative amazon review of 3 titles - 'Blueprints Medicine', 'First Aid for the Medicine Clerkship', and 'Step-Up to Medicine' - at 'Step-Up to Medicine', ISBN:0781747872
... Read more

Product Description

Hundreds and hundreds of questions and answers to help you ace the NBDE Part I!

No other resource gives you the practice questions you need to prepare for the NBDE Part I like First Aid Q&A for the NBDE Part I. The 800 questions focus on what you most need to know in order to pass the exam and include detailed explanations for each answer choice.

• 800 NBDE Part I-style questions, including one complete practice test
• Written for students by students who aced the exam and reviewed by top dental school faculty and practitioners
• Detailed explanations of both correct and incorrect answers
• Table of Contents mirrors First Aid for the NBDE Part I - allowing you to self-test by chapter during exam prep and coursework

Customer Reviews (6)

sooo many mistakes!
don't waste your money! although it isnt horrible to review the notions, it is filled with mistakes! i'm reading it right now and decided to stop to come write a review since all the mistakes were driving me insane!

Worse than inadequate...
Inadequate would be something that just doesn't prepare you well enough.Well, this book is worse than that since it has so many errors. I purchased this book in the PDF version.I am currently studying for the Micro/Path section right now and have only done about 40 of these questions.In just 40 questions I have found NUMEROUS errors and discrepancies.Some of the questions do not even correlate with the answer explanations, while other answers are flat out incorrect.

For instance, there is a question about the ACTH test & Addison's disease. The question is fine and the answer choice is correct, however, the explanation for the answer is completely inaccurate. See below.

39.What does the ACTH stimulation test accomplish?
A.Differentiates between primary and secondary hyperparathyroidism
B.Differentiates between hyper- and hypothyroidism
C.Differentiates between Cushing disease and syndrome
D.Differentiates between primary and secondary Addison disease (correct answer)
E.Differentiates between acromegaly and dwarfism

39.The correct answer is D.
The ACTH stimulation test is used to differentiate between primary and secondary Addison disease. Primary Addison is due to autoimmune, infectious, neoplastic, or hemorrhagic damage to the adrenal cortex. Secondary Addison is caused by a decrease in ACTH from the pituitary gland, thus hypofunction of the adrenal cortex. Thus, the stimulation test is accomplished by administering ACTH exogenously to a suspect patient.

(the above explanation is fine, but when they get to the most important part below, they SWITCH the reasoning!)
If cortisol increases, then primary Addison is suspected (adrenal cortex still functioning). If cortisol levels stay the same, then secondary Addison is suspected. This is due to inability of the adrenal cortex to respond to the ACTH.

You can check out these 2 links for a proper explanation if you need it.Basically, primary Addison's is a result of adrenal damage in one form or another, which would make it nearlyunresponsive to exogenous ACTH depending on the degree of damage.For secondary (depending on the amount of time the pituitary was in hypofunction), you would see an increase in cortisol in response to injected ACTH.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACTH_stimulation_test

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addison's_disease

So I guess the point of this overly verbose rant is that I personally would like to study in peace and not wonder whether or not the material I am using is correct. And unfortunately this book is riddled with errors.

Not Adequate for NBDE-1
First Aid Q&A for the NBDE Part I (First Aid Series) (Pt. 1)

I used this book as a practise for my exam- regretfully, the questions aren't based on exam at all, they are very simple, basic and misguided me into thinking that exam qs are easy, there are very few diagrams/images and no clinical vignette type qs...serious waste of money and TIME..moreover explanations are very abrupt and inadequate, I wouldn't recommend it to any test-takers.

First Aid Q & A NBDE Part 1
I like the book! It's really a great help for successfully passing the NBDE part !. i hope there'll be Part 2! great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

good reference
This is a good product and complement to the first aid review guide for part I national dental boards. ... Read more

Product Description
Used wherever the English language is spoken or taught, New First Aid in English has proved invaluable in class and as a reference book, both to native English speakers and to students of English as a second language. Covering vocabulary, spelling, syntax, idiom and correct usage, it provides the background information needed plus a wide range of exercises to test knowledge and skills. This supporting book provides the answers to the exercises. ... Read more

Product Description
Over the past twenty years more citizens in China and India have raised themselves out of poverty than anywhere else at any time in history. They accomplished this through the local business sector& mdash;the leading source of prosperity for all rich countries. In most of Africa and other poor regions the business sector is weak, but foreign aid continues to fund government and NGOs. Switching aid to the local business sector in order to cultivate a middle class is the oldest, surest, and only way to eliminate poverty in poor countries.A bold fusion of ethics and smart business,The Aid Trap shows how the same energy, goodwill, and money that we devote to charity can help local business thrive. R. Glenn Hubbard and William Duggan, two leading scholars in business and finance, demonstrate that by diverting a major share of charitable aid into the local business sector of poor countries, citizens can take the lead in the growth of their own economies. Although the aid system supports noble goals, a local well-digging company cannot compete with a foreign charity that digs wells for free. By investing in that local company a sustainable system of development can take root. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Nice blueprint
This is not meant to be a tome.It is a nice, quick overview of some of the factors that have stifled aid and development around the world.While the recommendations will certainly require a significant amount of effort to implement, it is a nice place to start the discourse.

The Aid Trap
The claim made by the authors of The Aid Trap is that government- and NGO-based aid to developing countries, while suitable for helping refugees or disaster victims, cannot produce sustained economic growth.And sustained economic growth is what is needed to lift developing countries out of poverty.

The book begins with an extremely abbreviated history of the spread of private enterprise, from the ancient world to the Roman Empire and then to Venice, Holland, and finally to England.Through the centuries, the authors say, private enterprise thrived or suffered in response to changes in the political and social environment that are now measured by the World Bank's "Doing Business" indicators:

Starting a business.
Dealing with licenses.
Employing workers.
Registering property.
Getting credit.
Protecting investors.
Paying taxes.
Trading across borders.
Enforcing contracts.
Closing a business.

They reason that once all countries were poor and had no private businesses; now all rich countries have large private business sectors; therefore, the key to wealth is to encourage private business.The conclusion is true but that doesn't make the argument valid.

The authors then assert that "We have traced the growth of the business sector from Sumer to Rome to Venice to Amsterdam to London: the rise of business systems was the key that made the industrial revolution possible.This leap to industry owed little or nothing to scientific discovery: Arkwright's power loom and Whitney's cotton gin worked by mechanics that the ancient Greeks and Chinese already knew.Murdock's gas light used knowledge from ancient Persia."To say the least, this is a provocative claim; I am tempted to call it implausible.At any rate, the authors don't attempt to support it.This points to the main weakness of the book: its extreme brevity, combined with a lack of footnotes or endnotes, undermines the credibility of the authors' more surprising claims.

But the book is still worth reading for its examination of anti-business sentiment among NGOs, advocates of development aid, and rulers in developing countries.Development aid got its start in the 1960s, when socialist sentiment was widespread in Europe and Great Britain, and Soviet communism was still seen as a viable model - if a brutal one - for achieving rapid economic growth.Economic growth models developed by Robert Solow, Arthur Lewis, and P.N. Rosenstein-Rodan were either neutral on the question of how economies should be organized or favored a "big push" that could only be accomplished through massive injections of capital (foreign aid) and government coordination of economic decisions.The authors also note that government-led development was a convenience for donor agencies, which could then work through the planning agencies in client countries.At the same time, the authors say, rulers in developing countries, favored government-led development because it allowed them to reward supporters and because sentiment against former colonizers led them to reject private investment.

The book closes with a detailed proposal for a "New Marshall Plan" - an aid program directed at lending to businesses in developing countries, which would repay the funds to their own governments, who would use the reflows for investments in economic infrastructure.I appreciated the thought that went into this proposal, which the authors hope will inspire an urgent, large-scale effort to encourage private sector-led growth in developing countries.

"Pray for Business"


This book opens with a scene at a prominent church near Wall Street. The congregation's regular prayers now include a mention of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, a plan for substantially reducing global poverty and its crippling effects by the year 2015. Our authors' reaction? To denigrate this sign of the growing movement to greatly increase rich-country aid to poor countries as totally misguided. As the title, The Aid Trap, indicates, they see foreign aid, in fact, as a negative factor. R. Glenn Hubbard, dean of the Columbia Business School and a former chair of Pres. George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, and William Duggan, a senior lecturer at the school, certainly have the credentials to deserve a hearing in the current debate over how best to address the issue of global poverty. However, this book has two basic drawbacks. First, it is not as well written as it should have been, with many sections lacking clarity or documentation for factual claims. Second, this is an ideological tract pushing the faith of private business as the only savior of humanity. The authors throw in only an occasional nuance acknowledging the need for some government role in alleviating the plight of the world's poorest people.

Hubbard and Duggan argue that foreign aid funds a system of recipient government agencies and foreign non-governmental organizations that provide crucial goods and services, but which thereby crowds out the indigenous business sector. No private local well-drilling or transport companies can compete successfully where free money or aid workers from abroad are already on the job. However, a thriving business sector, they say, is the key to development. They propose a Marshall Plan for helping the business sectors in the developing world (presenting a rambling discussion of how it worked after World War II for rescuing the European economy, and an equally scatter-shot outline of how it could be adapted today). This would entail diverting a portion of current aid money (perhaps 10%) and giving grants to help local governments improve or establish a proper business system and loans to small enterprises to get started and grow stronger so they can be competitive. Here's one of their nods to a role for government and even foreign aid itself. The result would be an ever-growing private business sector that would pay taxes to the government, from which the government would fund the projects for health care, education, and basic infrastructure now being inefficiently undertaken by foreign aid. From there, it's onward and upward toward mass prosperity. This is the only path that will succeed, though it will take time.

Do the people of the poor world, especially the bottom billion of this planet's inhabitants who live on less than $1 per day, have the time for this plan? Jeffrey Sachs points out that about eight million of these people die every year because of their poverty:they are too poor to afford adequate nutrition, health care, clean water, credit for seeds and fertilizer, transportation to markets, and so on. So we can ramp up our aid now, as the UN Millennium Development Goals call us to do and work on the fixes we know will work in the short term, and build a foundation for the future. Or we can pray for business to do its work in the long run.

Very thought-provoking ideas about ending poverty
The vast majority of people in wealthy nations would like to see an end to poverty in the world, but there is no general consensus on how to achieve this, and many well-intentioned development efforts have been unsuccessful. In this book, Glenn Hubbard and William Duggan attempt to provide a new solution.

The authors assert unequivocally that the solution to poverty is business. Their investigations reveal that it is easy to conduct business in most wealthy countries, but very difficult to conduct business in many poor countries. The obstacles to business often include exorbitant taxes, enormous amounts of paperwork and bureaucracy, problems with employing people, lack of availability of credit, and high tariffs preventing trade across borders. The World Bank create an annual Doing Business report that ranks countries on these sorts of features.

Not only does the book diagnose the problem, it comes up with a plan to solve poverty: a new Marshall Plan. After the Second World War, an international aid plan known as the Marshall Plan helped to kick start businesses and economies in Europe. The authors propose setting up an authority which loans money to businesses in poor countries which agree to reform their business sectors. The businesses repay the loans to their local governments, which spend the money on infrastructure to support further business.

In my view the authors are only partly correct in their diagnosis and solution. The legal environment for business is only one essential aspect of the solution to poverty. The cultural and political environments also need to be favourable, and they are far harder to change than the regulations affecting business.

The book is quite a short one, but it is easy to read and contains some very thought-provoking material. Although I do not agree with everything it says, I strongly recommend it to anyone who is interested in ending poverty.

Treatise on a new Marshall Plan for third-world nations
Prosperous nations today spend more than $100 billion annually on aid to developing countries. Still, according to the World Bank "1.4 billion people live on less than $1.25 per day." Columbia University Business School academics R. Glenn Hubbard and William Duggan warn against funneling more money to corrupt governments and tinpot dictators for development projects that never materialize. Instead, they propose "a new Marshall Plan for the world's poorest nations." Like the original Marshall Plan that helped European countries rebuild their economies after World War II, the new program would focus on loans to help local businesses get off the ground. The authors thoroughly discuss where alternative plans have failed and are not shy about presenting the foreseeable obstacles and obvious downsides of their own plan. They explain in detail how to launch it, what institutions would be in charge and how they'd have to function. The authors even particularize the financing scheme by providing a detailed budget in the appendix. getAbstract recommends this vital, thoughtful, interesting proposal on how rich nations can help poor nations lift their people out of poverty. ... Read more

Product Description
We live in a new reality of aid. Gone is the traditional bilateral relationship, the old-fashioned mode of delivering aid, and the perception of the third world as a homogenous block of poor countries in the south. Delivering Aid Differently describes the new realities of a $200 billion aid industry that has overtaken this traditional model of development assistance.

As the title suggests, aid must now be delivered differently. Here, case study authors consider the results of aid in their own countries, highlighting field-based lessons on how aid works on the ground, while focusing on problems in current aid delivery and on promising approaches to resolving these problems.

Contributors include Cut Dian Agustina (World Bank), Getnet Alemu (College of Development Studies, Addis Ababa University), Rustam Aminjanov (NAMO Consulting), Ek Chanboreth and Sok Hach (Economic Institute of Cambodia), Firuz Kataev and Matin Kholmatov (NAMO Consulting), Johannes F. Linn (Wolfensohn Center for Development at Brookings), Abdul Malik (World Bank, South Asia), Harry Masyrafah and Jock M. J. A. McKeon (World Bank, Aceh), Francis M. Mwega (Department of Economics, University of Nairobi), Rebecca Winthrop (Center for Universal Education at Brookings), Ahmad Zaki Fahmi (World Bank) ... Read more

Product Description

Apply the proven First Aid formula for exam success!

This is the new edition of the physician-to-physician, step-by-step guide to passing the pediatrics board exam. Written by veteran First Aid editor Tao Le and a team of former residents from Johns Hopkins University who recently took the exam, this book covers what to expect on the exam, how to register and succeed, and must-know high-yield facts. Features new to this edition include a full-color photo insert and mini-cases that frame clinical discussions for better retention. The summary of high-yield facts make it the ideal last minute review book.

Features:

• Easy-to-remember summaries of the most frequently tested topics
• Hundreds of high-yield algorithms, clinical images, tables, and illustrations
• Margin notes reinforce must-know information
• Mnemonics and clinical pearls make learning and memorization fast, fun, and easy
• Mini-cases highlight commonly tested patient presentations and scenarios
• 12 pages of full-color images
• Resident-tested tips on how to register, prepare for, and ace the exam
• Completely revised based on reader feedback -- so you know you are studying the most up-to-date and relevant material possible
• A true "insider's guide" for in-service, boards, and recertification!

Customer Reviews (1)

First Aid for Peds Boards
received on time, clean and very well packaged so it didn't wrinkle. First Aid for the Pediatric Boards, Second Edition (FIRST AID Specialty Boards) ... Read more

Product Description
Current AffairsAmazon.com Review
Before you mail another check to Save the Children or join thePeace Corps, read this book. Michael Maren shows that theinternational aid industry is a big business more concerned withwinning its next big government contract than helping needypeople. The problem isn't a lack of charity missions in the ThirdWorld, but that the best intentions of these idealists are ofteninadvertently destructive, thanks to a deadly combination of theirnaiveté and the willingness of native elites to exploitthem. Maren spent many years in Africa living this life. This is asplendid, literate, muckraking memoir of his experiences. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (40)

Unintended Consequence of Foreign Aid
The Road To Hell has a simple and precise theme: "Blood and guts ... attracting the great whites (sharks) to the warm unprotected shore...". Foreign Aid and International Charity Money will attract more and more "sharks" and hurt those "warm unprotected people". This book is a great read for all development economists and people who want to help the African . Good intension is not enough for good consequence.

Chris Tam
Hong Kong

The rest of the story
Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Somalia is a failed state and a war zone. International aid in a context like that can not be compared with for example, building a well in the desert of Niger or providing school feeding rations in Laos. Yes some international aid is diverted to war lords or Government fat cats. Yes some projects are ineffective. Yes some people are dishonest.

However, this book does a grave injustice to totality of humanitarian aid. I have been an aid worker in Africa for 13 years and I have seen success stories and peoples lives changed for the good. I have seen children who will die of malnutrition without the help of international organizations.

And by the way before we get too on our high horse about all of the US money that is being wasted, please remember that the US Government gives less foreign aid, as a percentage of GNP than almost any other industrialized nation. In 2006, the US gave just 0.17% of our GNP. Most EU contries give five times that. (It is also interesting to note that total U.S. aid to Israel is approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world's population and already has one of the world's higher per capita incomes.)

How trustworthy
I got through the first chapter of this book and then realized there are no sources or citations for the information in this book. I did not bother to finish it because I can hear a million opinions on foreign aid but a good argument is built upon facts/sources.

wow!eye-opener
Some years ago I had been wanting to go work in third world countries and was studying nonprofit management.This book seriously counter-balanced my idealism with a powerful real look of what aid and nonprofit work all too often really look like.Some of its images have stuck with me, like I will never see a Land Rover in quite the same way as I did before reading this book.I seriously recommend this book to anyone contemplating any kind of aid work.In my case, this book helped me decide to not leave a lucrative occupation to go work in the nonprofit sector but instead encouraged me to keep my job so that I could continue to do volunteer work in own time.After reading this book I did research into international volunteer work and my son and I both went on to have some great memorable international volunteer experiences (however my son was most recently a long-term volunteer worker in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina--I never knew it would one day feel so much like a third-country in my own USA). Anyway, sorry I digressed, the point is, there are good and bad aspects to providing foreign aid and until one figures out where they really stand on foreign aid (I still have a lot of ambivalence), they may want to do volunteer work in such a way that it is not their principal livelihood.Having said all that, I would not want to discourage anyone from entering the aid industry.Its just that there a lot of things one should first consider.At the least, one should know that its a subject with intertwining complex implications.

A Good Look at Problems on the Inside of Aid
This book has its flaws.As other reviewers have noted, it is rambling and disjointed.While I believe that his facts are mostly right, there are points where he may have come to the wrong conclusion because of a lack of familiarity with aid processes.Certainly, he over-generalizes based on anecdotal evidence.Aid in Somalia is probably not exactly the same thing as aid in Chile.The existence of some venal people in an organization does not mean that everyone in an organization is venal.

Maren is too quick to dismiss people as acting only in their own self-interest, even to the point of being internally inconsistent.He spends a lot of time passing out blame, and not always where it belongs.While he is pretty sure that NGOs should be blamed for carrying out bad projects, he doesn't seem to realize that they are under contract with USAID.USAID can terminate projects unilaterally; NGO sub-contractors can't, both legally and practically.On the one hand, he steams about patronizing attitudes towards Africans, and, on the other hand, says that it was "not their fault" that recipients stole aid funds in massive amounts, but the fault of those who made aid available to them.(What could be more patronizing than assuming that adults can't be held responsible for their own behavior?)Does the fact that aid workers have to convince Congress to give them funding by pointing out the advantages to the U.S. and legislators' constituents really mean that the aid workers were never serious about their humanitarian goals?

The fact that it sometimes reads more like angry blurting than balanced or reasoned scholarship is a shame, because there is a lot of good material here and good points being made.But it is important to read, particularly now, where there isrenewed clamoring for more funds for aid to meet the Millennium Development Goals.Maren clearly, accessibly and authoritatively explains why more money does not equal more development; worse, can be destructive.These points are made elsewhere by others, but are usually buried in dry academic papers that speak in euphemisms.Anyone who wants to work in development should read this book.Maren can be forgiven for being angry.

... Read more

Product Description
This popular resource assists readers in honing their knowledge of radiological differential diagnosis for the most commonly encountered conditions in all areas of the body. The first section presents lists of differential diagnoses, supplemented by notes on useful facts and discriminating factors. The second section offers detailed descriptions on the characteristic radiological appearance of more than eighty individual diseases. The result is a convenient study tool for exam preparation, as well as a helpful quick reference for clinical practice.

• Lists of differential diagnoses.
• Notes on radiological apperances.
• Ideal for preparation for radiological examinations.

Customer Reviews (2)

excellent quick reference
not exhaustive - but indexed on basis of location and description of abnormality - eg "middle mediastinal masses in adults.... or "calcification hepatic...and goes on to list differential with brief comments on key discriminators. Excellent book - useful aide de memoir for radiologists and clinicans who preview images [eg emergency physicians]

This is NOT a book about AIDS
Amazon appears to have catalogued this book as a book about Auto Immune Deficiency Syndrome. In fact the first word in the title is an ordinary english word meaning "assistance" or "to help" ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (8)

the invisible cure
a nice journey about wanting to change the world, but winding up with and the understanding that society needs to change, a tough task

Very Interesting, Must-Read Book
One of those rare books that talk to all, regular readers, scientists, activists, humanitarian workers, doctors, nurses, families... The author presents a clear and firm position on the question of AIDS in a very engaging manner. It was a pleasure to read the book that shed light on why the fight against AIDS is far from being won.

used book
I almost always buy the used books. I've never been disappointed until the last book I bought. It was so marked up with ink lines all over every page and the person had written notes all on the sides. It was really bad. I found it hard to read and it made it very distracting.

hiv prevention: now and how
"As a woman living with HIV," says Beatrice Were of Uganda, "I am often asked whether there will ever be a cure for HIV/AIDS, and my answer is that there is already a cure. It lies in the strength of women, families and communities who support and empower each other to break the silence around AIDS and take control of their sexual lives." With a vaccine against HIV far off in the distant future (if at all), and with treatment of AIDS in the two-thirds world difficult, expensive, and limited in effect, the name of the game in HIV-AIDS is prevention. But in places like Africa, which is the focus of Helen Epstein's book, prevention is not as simple as it sounds. As she notes in her appendix, measles, syphilis, tuberculosis, and other entirely preventable diseases still kill millions of people even though they can be treated for pennies.

Why has HIV-AIDS ravaged eastern and southern Africa like no place on earth? "In 2005," she writes, "roughly 40 percent of all those infected with HIV lived in just eleven countries in this region-- home to less than 3 percent of the world's population." In some of these countries the infection rates have hit 30 percent, decimating the general population, while in the west, for example, rates hover at about 1% and are generally limited to specific demographics like gay men, intravenous drug users, and commercial sex workers." Theories abound about this discrepancy, but Epstein argues a narrow point, that Africa's problem is not profound promiscuity, or even the normal culprits of high risk groups like prostitutes or truck drivers, but instead a social phenomenon of "concurrent partners." That is, Africans do not have more sexual partners than in other places in the world, and nowhere near as many as gay men among whom infection rates are exponentially lower; but they do have a small number of sexual partners concurrently, at the same time, rather than one at a time or sequentially. This has set the virus loose among the general population like a runaway train.

And why has prevention been so elusive? Epstein appeals to what she calls the comprehensive "social ecology" of denial, silence, shame, adverse gender roles, and stigma about HIV-AIDS. Western-initiated and donor-funded programs will always be less successful than listening to Africans themselves and their own suggestions about how to address the problem. Uganda, of course, has been the amazing success story in this regard, and the subject of bitter debates about why. In 1989 Uganda had one of the highest infection rates in the world, but from about 1992-2002 the infection rate dropped by two-thirds. The key to the success, argues Epstein, was not in the billions of dollars from the west, but from the "collective efficacy" of a "shared calamity," by people helping each other and talking openly about the scourge. In particular, "partner reduction," she says, and not the much vaunted condom use, helped Ugandans to address the cultural phenomenon of concurrent partners. Partner reduction, as one worker described it, is thus the "neglected middle child of the ABC approach" of abstinence, fidelity ("be faithful"), and condoms. Zero Grazing, as Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni called for, is thus the silent cure already available, however valuable other prescriptions.

Epstein, a molecular biologist who has written widely on public health issues, combines rigorous science and the anecdotal evidence of substantial field research. She's clearly as comfortable with and interested in meeting with a dozen African widows under a mango tree as she is in the latest results of a demographic study. Her book has received strong reviews in the New York Times and the New York Review of Books (where her mother was a co-editor before she died), and also a rebuttal of sorts on the home page of UNAIDS that was provoked by her somewhat conspiratorial stance toward research that she argues they ignored because it didn't fit their partisan ideology.

Clear Thinking About Slowing the AIDS Epidemic in Africa
We have been overwhelmed by bad information about what causes AIDS to be so much more prevalent in the eastern and southern parts of Africa than elsewhere in the world.Even though more money than ever is being directed to stopping this epidemic, that money is hardly ever being spent for a helpful purpose.Helen Epstein carefully describes what she learned on site in Africa about what the primary problems really are and how best to deal with those problems . . . rather than the problems that politicians and NGOs want to address.Millions of lives are at stake:Please read what Ms. Epstein has to say and share what you learn with others.

So what's different about people in eastern and southern Africa that makes AIDS so much larger a risk there?

1.Men are much less likely to be circumcised.Circumcion cuts infection risk dramatically.

2.Although the people in that part of the world have no more (and often fewer) sexual partners over a life time, these people are more likely to be active with more than one sexual partner at a time.That habit causes those who become infected to spread the disease much faster and further.

What can be done?

Uganda (once the area most affected by AIDS) provides the answer:Make sure everyone knows that AIDS risk is there for everyone who is a drug user and shares needles, or has sex with anyone who has more than one partner without using a condom.The public in general, and politicians as well, like to paint AIDS as being a problem limited to homosexuals, sex workers, and promiscuous people.But in places like eastern and southern Africa, those who monogamous can be almost equally at risk.In fact, Uganda doesn't use these good policies any more ("No Grazing") because fighting AIDS has gone from being a local activity to being a national policy.

Ms. Epstein reports in detail how local initiatives to get the correct information out can make a big difference (saving an estimated one million lives in Uganda).National and international initiatives seem to waste almost all of the money (as she points out in several examples).

By not paying attention to what works and what doesn't, country leaders and international NGO leaders run the risk of making everyone feel like everything is being done . . . when the wrong things are being done.As a result, millions will die.

It's a sad story of how everyone wants to help, but they see the problem as being like the nail in the eye of a carpenter.You hit the nail to solve the problem.Drug companies want to develop vaccines.Condom makers want to sell condoms.Churches want to preach sexual abstinence.Politicians want to ignore the frequency of rape, casual sex, and cheating among married people.Individuals want to believe they are safe because they know the people they have sex with.But most of these nails don't make much difference.

Let's start hitting the right nail!


... Read more

Product Description
Does the scientific "theory" that HIV came to North America from Haiti stem from underlying attitudes of racism and ethnocentrism in the United States rather than from hard evidence? Award-winning author and anthropologist-physician Paul Farmer answers with this, the first full-length ethnographic study of AIDS in a poor society. First published in 1992 this new edition has been updated and a new preface added. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Reading this book will change your life
Farmer's excellent historical ethnography of Haitian illness (as seen through the contemporary context of the world AIDS epidemic), proves the necessity of developing anthropological approaches to understanding health systems and implementing medical care.The diagnosis and analysis of sickness, disease, illness, and treatment should go hand-in-hand with the cultural understanding of local systems of blame, accusation, causation, and cure.Where most approaches to medicine are based on the "Westernized" first-world nations' understanding of the causes of illness (tainted as well, as Farmer shows, by systematic "blame the victim" and shame techniques), the adoption of these approaches in treating the illnesses of other peoples can be catastrophic.Three ethnographies make up the structure of a detailed historical inquiry )

The longstanding tradition of conceiving of illness through the lens of powerlessness shapes the contemporary lives of the people in Haiti with whom Farmer worked.Although they could see the effects of the illness, people in this region were obsessed with the cause of the illness, and felt the need to understand AIDS through a constructed narrative of blame.A deep belief in their religion led villagers to look for the source of witchcraft that could possibly be harming them, and elaborate stories about neighbors, jealousies, and rivalries flourished as a result.Any improvement in the standing of one member of the society (through wealth, status, relationships, acquisition of property or food, or political power through employment or marriage) adds to the structure of distrust and blame.

Farmer's book shows how disturbingly complex and deep the layers of mistrust, misinformation, and the effects of racism, are.Among the medical hypotheses for the probable exposure is the theory of Haitian sex-workers' contacts through gay tourists to the early strains of HIV.Farmer outlines the long history of Haiti as a gay tourist attraction, and Duvalier's encouragement of tourism as a boost to the domestic economy.Although the possible cause of the gay sex trade for HIV exposure has not been confirmed, medical establishments in the U.S. based their theories of causation on other factors, such as Haitian religious practices.These theories were, in truth, reinforcing longstanding ignorance and racist misunderstandings about Haitian vodou.Stereotypes and racial profiling of Haitian citizenship as a "risk factor" (one of the "Four H's" along with hemophiliac, homosexual, and heroin user), contributed to public policies against Haitian immigrants.Haitians' belief that they are being attacked by some evil sorcery in the guise of a fatal illness called sida falls into place amidst the context of extreme antagonism and injustice.

While reading this book, I was compelled to ask myself if there isn't some truth in Haitians' understanding of AIDS as the result of malicious sorcery.Haiti was the only American society to successfully result from the direct action of a revolution against slavery and colonialism.As such, the small nation governed by creoles and black ex-slaves presented a threat to North and South American colonial societies, which were firmly entrenched in slave labor economic systems.Historically, the threat of a repeat of the Haitian revolution must have terrified white European landowners.This terror of African power and strength has been passed on in a racist legacy, adapted to political policies and nationalist agendas, and still exists in ignorant beliefs about AIDS and its causes.Haitians believe that they are victims of a longstanding racist agenda, and they may in fact be right.Farmer's book begins to illuminate some of the complicated historical and ethnographic realities of the overlapping connections between illness and racism, and between causes and effects.

One of the 4-Hs shouldn't be.
This book dispels the common myths of Haitians and AIDS. It also shows very clearly the heavy involvement of the United States in creating the poverty Haiti has faced. This book makes use of statistics well, butunfortunately, at this point those stats are many years old. When Farmerwrote this book, only three people in the village of Do Kay had died ofAIDS. Now, with huge percentages of Haitians exposed to HIV, the picturemust certainly look different. This book is a geat candidate for a revisededition some time in the future.

Informative and thought provoking
I read this book for a medical anthropology class and found it incredibly interesting in its discussion of the politics and racism involved in the US treatment of AIDS in Haiti.It delves intohow the American presence andinfluences lead to and exasperated the widespread AIDS and poverty problemsin Haiti.

Informative and thought provoking
I read this book for a medical anthropology class and found it incredibly interesting in its discussion of the politics and racism involved in the US treatment of AIDS in Haiti.It delves intohow the American presence andinfluences lead to and exasperated the widespread AIDS and poverty problemsin Haiti. ... Read more

Product Description
Wilderness First Aid: Emergency Care for Remote Locations, Third Edition provides information on how to handle common injuries and illnesses when medical care is an hour away or more. Designed for those who work or travel in remote locations, this comprehensive guide will teach you what to look for and what to do in the event of an emergency, and direct you to the most appropriate type of care. Completely revised, the Third Edition contains updated information on first aid training and complies with current cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and emergency cardiovascular care (ECC) guidelines. ... Read more

Product Description
This highly anticipated work is the complete, one-stop guide to hearing aids, covering everything you need to know to prescribe, select, fit, measure, and evaluate their performance.Dr. Dillon is a sought-after speaker and instructor throughout the world.Some of the benefits of this acclaimed text: *COMPREHENSIVE--From basic concepts of hearing loss, hearing aid software and hardware, to assessment guidelines and results-oriented counseling methods, the book covers it all! *THEORETICALLY SOUND--All findings explained in detail to clarify concepts, making the book ideal as a standard reference for clinicians as well as a core text in graduate courses *PRACTICAL--Easy-to-use tips, tables, and procedures designed to be pinned to clinic walls for instant reference *ACCESSIBLE--Synopses, key paragraphs, and detailed materials help you progress from basic to highly sophisticated concepts easily *INTEGRATED AND CROSS-REFERENCED--Each cross-referenced chapter builds on previous chapters, with the flow and consistency of a single author *INNOVATIVE--You will discover research results and procedures that have not yet appeared in the literature, giving you an important professional edgeOpinion leaders in the field have been uniformly enthusiastic: "The book is smashing...Should be a required reference for anyone who deals with hearing aids. All of the materials, including an outstanding chapter on pediatric amplification, are presented in a practical and immediately useful manner." --Jerry Northern, author and editor, HearX*"Packed with concise, up-to-date, useful information concerning the selection and fitting of hearing aids. I'd highly recommend this text for graduate audiology students to anyone involved in hearing aid dispensing."--Gus Mueller, PhD, Adjunct Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

recommended for all audiology students
perfect for any audiology student
Gives a detailed overlook on hearing aids, how they work and the key implications of their use

Too old but some ok basic concepts
This book was published in 2001.As such there is no information regarding open fit OTE hearing aids.I also could not find any information regarding cochlear dead regions and the use of hearing aid fitting for patients who may have that problem.

If you can find a cheap used copy maybe think about it but overall it is a dated reference.Do an internet search at Hearing Journal, Hearing Review, American Academy of Audiology, or any number of other sites and get better more up to date information then this.

Best investment I ever made
Anyone in the field of Audiology knows this book as The Bible. I bought it four years ago and I use it as a reference book constantly. Do yourself a favor and bind this book because it will get worn! It is a comprehensive guide to hearing aids and it explains most terms in a simple and understandable manner. Some concepts will not seem simple right away, but read explanations from anyone else, and you will realize that Dillon is a master at explaining very complex concepts. I have taken two hearing aid courses based solely on this book and I strongly recommend it to anyone in our field. ... Read more

Product Description
Would you know what to do if . . .
Your child gets a nosebleed?
An older person suffers a stroke?
Someone slips and falls in your home?

Doing the right thing in emergencies, large or small, can make all the difference. From minor cuts and scrapes to burns and broken bones The Everything First Aid Book will help you to:

• Perform basic CPR
• Put together an efficient first-aid kit
• Decide if it's an emergency and if you need to call 911
• Make and secure a splint
• Deal with poisoning and choking
• Design a home emergency plan
• Handle electrical injuries, allergic reactions, and more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great Resource!
This is a wonderful resource for any medicine cabinet. It is thorough, concise and easy to read. When I am facing a situation where I need a quick medical answer this is the book I reach for!

A necessary book for all households
In a jam and need to deliver a baby? Witness to an accident and the person needs CPR? Or just worried about summer bee stings? This book is a must have for every parent's glove box, and another one in the bathroom or kitchen. The Everything First Aid Book is small enough to tote around and organized in such a way that you can easily find what you are looking for. Besides using it as a reference, it's actually an interesting read and written in a way that the information sticks (not a lot of going on about unnecessary details). In other words, it's really an emergency book and lives up to it's name.

A must have for all households
As a Christian and the best friend of author Nadine Saubers RN who I know as the most loving, dependable, honest, charitable, and Christ like Christian I find the above reviewer disappointing and her hostility extremely UN-Christ-like. Nadine wrote a thorough and accurate book on first aid within the constraints of her publisher. If you are looking for a comprehensive up to date book on first aid this one is for you!

It might interest you to look at the other reviews written by the above reviewer.

Garbage
Save your money, This so called RN, Nadine Saubers decided at the end of her book to slap all Christians in the face, with statements that do not belong in a book on first aid, I returned my copy for a refund ASAP, I would not give a dime to F&W Publications of Avon Ma. or everything series, When they decide to respect 85% of Americans and not slap them or have additions in the book with no relation to the subject, then one may take another look, but they will never get a dime from me period ... Read more

Product Description
Every year, billions of dollars of environmental aid flow from the rich governments of the North to the poor governments of the South. Why do donors provide this aid? What do they seek to achieve? How effective is the aid given? And does it always go to the places of greatest environmental need?

From the first Earth Summit in Stockholm in 1972 to the G8 Gleneagles meeting in 2005, the issue of the impact of aid on the global environment has been the subject of vigorous protest and debate. How much progress has there been in improving environmental protection and clean-up in the developing world? What explains the patterns of environmental aid spending and distribution - is it designed to address real problems, achieve geopolitical or commercial gains abroad, or buy political mileage at home? And what are the consequences for the estimated 4 million people that die each year from air pollution, unsafe drinking water, and lack of sanitation?

All of these questions and many more are addressed in this groundbreaking text, which is based on the authors' work compiling the most comprehensive dataset of foreign aid ever assembled. By evaluating the likely environment impact of over 400,000 development projects by more than 50 donors to over 170 recipient nations between 1970 and 2001, Greening Aid represents a unique, state of the art picture of what is happening in foreign assistance, and its impact on the environment. Greening Aid explains major trends and shifts over the last three decades, ranks donors according to their performance, and offers case studies which compare and contrast donors and types of environmental aid. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A great introduction to a fascinating topic
With the environment becoming such an important issue in both the U.S. and the rest of the world, I really recommend Greening Aid. This book is a wonderful introduction to the world of environmental development assistance, which a lot of people don't know very much about. The authors do a great job of including both easy-to-interpret graphs and case studies along with some rather sophisticated economic analysis, so that this book can be enjoyed by novices, students and serious scholars alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Very useful information for everyone
This book is targeted at those individuals diagnosed as HIV positive, but it is so much more than that.This is valuable information for friends, families, and loved ones to have to understand what a loved one is experiencing now or may experience in the future.It is well written by a physician in language that everyone can understand.It includes information that cover all areas of life--not just physical health, but mental health, relationships, sexual activity. I highly recommend this for professionals working in the health care field on any level.

news to an HIV Nurse
This book is an excellent review material for the nurse and the patient, some physicians could probably use it too!Written by a doctor for everyone! Great stuff for patient teaching in language the average person can understand. He uses words like Yucky and stuff to describe that yucky stuff! I am an HIV RN and I learned something new from it. I'm so pleased with it that I will be using it for my educational support with my clients! Covers everything! There are no wasted questions and every answer is cross referenced to other questions! WOW! I love it!

A GREAT READ and WAY TO LEARN
At last, a book about HIV that's tells me what I want to know, that's written by a gay guy, and that's fun to read and doesn't drag me down.I've been a regular user of Dr. G's web forum for years.It's nice to read him now, with his amusing and irreverent style, in book form (where he can concentrate on education rather than just placating or pissing off the crazies).If you've just found out you're positive, then this is the book you should read first. But I learned a lot, too, and I consider myself pretty educated on the subject.Everyone with HIV infection should read this book...and lots of other people should, too.

Important and Informative--by an expert
Dr. Gallant,an internationally renowned expert fromt Johns Hopkins, presents excellent and understandable answers to the most commonly asked questions about HIV-AIDS. A must read for anyone who is affected directly or indirectly by the disease! ... Read more

Product Description
Perfect for mastering key pharmacology topics and drugs, MOSBY'S PHARMACOLOGY MEMORY NOTECARDS is a colorfully illustrated collection of spiral-bound cards with a variety of learning aids, illustrations, and mnemonics. With every topic from administration to the many types of drugs, these cards take a visual approach to help you master difficult pharmacology content for both nursing school and the NCLEX exam.

• UNIQUE! Includes 92 full-color illustrated mnemonics for individual drugs and difficult pharmacology concepts to help you remember even the most complex topics.
• What You Need to Know drug monographs on the back of each image include valuable information about each drug with drug classification, action, uses, contraindications, precautions, side effects, and nursing implications information.
• UNIQUE! Color highlights draw your attention to four central topics: serous/life-threatening implications, most frequent side effects, important nursing implications, and patient teaching.
• Spiral-bound at the top with substantial paper, these notecards are durable and portable.

Customer Reviews (24)

Helpful for NCLEX
I found this product helpful in studying for the NCLEX. It hits the major drugs of each classification and the key actions and side effects.

Helped with NCLEX
I used these notecards to study for NCLEX and passed with 75q. I am a visual learner, and it helped a lot. In the days that I was too tired of the boring books, I had fun with the silly cartoons on these notecards. It doesn`t have all the meds you must know to pass the test. So, you need something else. I didn`t give 5 stars because it should have more meds.

Not for me, but maybe for others?
Personally, I hate these notecards and am sorry they were required by my professor.In my opinion, they're silly and childish.The pictures are of cartoons to try to help with understanding (or memorizing) drug concepts, but I prefer other ways of understanding that are more reality-based (like showing me a picture of what receptor a drug works on, rather than a cartoon picture of a cop who blocks a doorway).Again, this is just me - if cartoons work for you these may be helpful!

Regret
The devices that they use are helpful in memorization; however, there are not enough drugs covered and sometimes vital information about drugs is omitted. I say come up with creative ways to remember drugs on your own.

Greatest book ever
This is an EXTREMELY helpful book for reviewing your drugs. I'm a pharmacy student and it has helped me so much. The pictures really help it stick out in your mind.I would highly recommend it to all health care professionals! ... Read more

Product Description
Emergency Care and Safety ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good for what I need it for.
Needed a book to help me on refreshing CPR and first aid with AED.This is what I was looking for.

A must have Book!
This is a must have book for any home.
Very quick transaction, book received in great condition ... Read more

Product Description
San Diego State Univ., CA. Revised edition of Handbook of Hearing Aid Amplification, c1988. Comprehensive textbook and handbook to current advances in hearing instrument technology and clinical practices associated with selection and fitting strategies. Softcover. ... Read more

Product Description
This manual meets the first aid training needs of individual servicemembers. Because medical personnel will not always be readily available,the nonmedical service members must rely heavily on their own skills andknowledge of life-sustaining methods to survive on the integrated battlefield.This publication outlines both self-aid and aid to other service members(buddy aid). More importantly, it emphasizes prompt and effective action insustaining life and preventing or minimizing further suffering and disability.First aid is the emergency care given to the sick, injured, or wounded beforebeing treated by medical personnel. The term first aid can be defined as?urgent and immediate lifesaving and other measures, which can beperformed for casualties by nonmedical personnel when medical personnelare not immediately available.? Nonmedical service members have receivedbasic first aid training and should remain skilled in the correct procedures forgiving first aid. This manual is directed to all service members. Theprocedures discussed apply to all types of casualties and the measuresdescribed are for use by both male and female service members. ... Read more