AIDS

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-- This update is a great improvement on the 1986 edition, with changes on nearly every page. There is more certainty on the signs and symptoms to look for in diagnosing AIDS, and clearer distinctions made between AIDS, ARC, and LAS, as well as HTLV-III, HIV and HIV-2. Visually, also, this edition is much improved: larger, darker print on whiter paper in a better layout. The ten pages of charts and illustrations, although clearer, are mostly the same as the 1986 edition. The text is punchier, with fewer hedging qualifiers. The only section that seems unchanged is the clear explanation of the immune system. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control are current up to 1989. The results of ongoing surveys by public health authorities on the spread of the disease are discussed. Predictions are updated and changed considerably, because ``virtually all our questions about AIDS have been answered except how to cure it and how to make a vaccine to prevent it.'' Overall, this edition is more accessible, its tone more conversational--although, with current research findings, more alarming. Nourse adds far more detailed recommendations on condom use (still no illustrations) and outlines drugs being tested (acyclovir; zidovudine; AL-721) that might help. There is more on social and health aspects (i.e., whether to use prophylactic drugs as preventives), on the formidable obstacles to the development of a vaccine, and on the staggering cost of medical care for sufferers. Vocabulary will put this out of the range of most junior high readers, for whom Lynda Madaras Talks to Teens about AIDS (Newmarket, 1988) is still the best in the field. --Anne Osborn, Riverside Public Library, Calif.