ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with the cultural, social, political, scientific, historical, global, and local consumptions of the terms “post-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)” from the perspective of meaning-making on health, illness, and well-being. It argues that dominant discourses on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS in India, created and sustained by the National AIDS Control Organization and its affiliated state units, perpetuates a neoliberal logic of “individualist intervention” promoted by the NGO–pharma–Global North axis. The book focuses on the processes of delivering a visual health literacy resource, focused on HIV, for undergraduate students in a large US city. It suggests that “social death adds an additional layer of exclusion to a population already plagued by multiple social inequalities” based on, among other things, HIV status, sexual identity/orientation ageism, and homophobia.
