Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!UHUPVM1.BITNET!EPSYNET From: EPSYNET@UHUPVM1.BITNET (Psychnet Newsletter and Bulletin Board) Newsgroups: sci.psychology Subject: psychnet Message-ID: <8804161601.AA17730@jade.berkeley.edu> Date: 16 Apr 88 14:10:51 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: Psychnet Distribution list Organization: The Internet Lines: 31 From: Subject: SSRC interest in HIV/AIDS research This is Richard Rockwell of the Social Science Research Council, 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158. (212) 661-0280. The Council has a strong interest in social/behavioral science research on the global social consequences of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. By this we mean research on demographic, humanitarian, economic, cultural, political, developmental, infrastructural, familial, ... etc. effects of the pandemic, both domestically and internationally. An example: mounting an effective prevention program in most African nations will require either large infusions of outside funds and personnel, or reallocation of funds and personnel from other programs--programs in clean water, sewage, agriculture, education, transportation, control of other epidemics and endemic diseases, etc. The effects on African societies from making this trade-off could be substantial even if no other African is ever infected, i.e., if the prevention program works perfectly. In addition, the spread of the epidemic could be aggravated precisely by the trade-offs, in that one of the cofactors in transmission of AIDS is social: poverty that forces women into prositution, lack of jobs in urban areas, homelessness, etc. One could well argue that one of the steps necessary to fight AIDS in Africa is to spur development to new levels. Lots of other examples come to mind; some of them are set out in a book that Norman Miller and I have just edited, AIDS in Africa: Social and Policy Impact, published by Edwin Mellen Press in May. But there is much more to be thought about. I would like to hear--by BITNET or by more conventional means--from people who are taking on research projects focused on such matters. At some point the Council may try to convene working groups focused on specific topics, such as the trade-off issue I posed above, as well as to try to foster collaboration among researchers around the world who are working on related problems. Would you know of people who ought to be involved in such an effort?