The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight Against AIDS - Couverture souple

In 1993, Helen Epstein, a scientist working with a biotechnology company searching for an AIDS vaccine, moved to Uganda, where she witnessed first-hand the suffering caused by the HIV virus. The Invisible Cure, dramatic, illuminating and beautifully written, recounts the struggle of international health experts, governments and ordinary Africans to understand the devastating spread of HIV in Africa, and traces how their responses to the crisis have changed in light of new medical developments and political realities. The AIDS epidemic in Africa is uniquely severe, but Epstein argues that there are ways to address this crisis that may be simpler than many people imagine. A deeply affecting story of scientific breakthroughs and false starts, and of the human costs of policymakers' missteps and inaction, The Invisible Cure will change the way we think about AIDS, a disease without precedent.

Her subject – it soon becomes clear – is not just the nature of one virus, but of humankind (Philip Gourevitch )

Like travelling into remote and hard-to-comprehend territory with an unblinking and sure-footed guide (The New York Times )

A serious attempt to understand the epidemiology of thoughtfulness, as well as that of HIV. Epstein wants to know why clarity and honesty, as well as human lives, so often become casualties of AIDS (New Statesman )

Some of the scenes that the author describes would be hilarious were they satirical rather than real. An important contribution to the literature of AIDS (Spectator )

Practical, concrete and full of hard information ... Epstein's scientific background, lucidity of expression and habit of wide-ranging inquiry lend authority and accessibility (Hilary Mantel London Review of Books )