"This book is a comprehensive, easy-to-understand guide for health workers throughout the world, notably in areas with few medical resources. It could be equally useful in a rural village in southern Africa, a major city in Thailand, or a Peace Corps worker's backpack. Designed as a manual for people confronting the HIV epidemic in their communities, it has been written to be easily accessible to those without medical or technical knowledge and without prior training in the prevention of HIV and the care of those with AIDS."--BOOK JACKET. "Topics range from the biology of the virus to designing prevention programs, from the epidemiology of the disease to writing grant proposals. The authors discuss explicitly the risk factors for infection and suggest helpful methods for explaining them and assisting people to change their behavior. They avoid extensive discussions of medical treatments not available to the vast majority of the people in the world who have HIV, focusing instead on public health interventions that are possible in less industrialized settings. However, an appendix aimed at readers with medical training discusses common HIV-related illnesses and their treatment."--BOOK JACKET.