Book Review Nora Kenworthy. Mistreated: The Political Consequences of the Fight Against AIDS in Lesotho. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press. 2017. $29.95. pp. 256. Paperback. ISBN 9780826521552

DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.278
Published date01 September 2018
Date01 September 2018
AuthorNancy Kaddis
Book Review
Nora Kenworthy. Mistreated: The Political Consequences of the Fight Against AIDS in
Lesotho. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press. 2017. $29.95. pp. 256.
Paperback. ISBN 9780826521552
This book details the extreme challenges and paradoxes associated with
global health, especially in regard to HIV work in sub-Saharan Africa. Through
brief‌ing the reader on the history of Lesotho up to its present economic and
political status, Kenworthy weaves a painfully detailed picture of life for many
residents of this country. In adding the complexity that the HIV epidemic brings
to such a nation, the reader begins to understand the political, social, and
economic consequences that global health initiatives present to Lesotho’s citizens.
In many ways, these initiatives inadvertently and indirectly erode the efforts
toward the democratization and transition to self-rule. Kenworthy demonstrates
an intricate understanding of these complexities. This book should be required
reading for political scientists, public health off‌icials, and global health workers
who are at all interested in modern-day Lesotho or other developing countries
struggling with HIV treatment and prevention. As the book makes clear, HIV
programs can be so closely intertwined with the political, social, and medical
structures that are being built in support of its citizens; the paradox is that often
implementing these programs comes at a great cost to Lesotho and her citizens.
The governments of many countries have not done an adequate job at
educating their people on the risks and mode of spread of HIV. What I saw and
learned in 2000 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during an internship, paralleled
Kenworthy’s experience in Lesotho.
There was denial and even submission to this disease which ravaged, at that
time, 20 percent of the citizens of the capital city of Ethiopia. In fact, when I
worked in hospital wards in Addis Ababa in 2000, many physicians, nurses, and
patients could not even say the word “HIV” or “AIDS.” Instead, these patients
were dying of pneumonia, TB, or another infection. If the etiology of their
infection was mentioned, it was called simply “the virus,” and not spoken of
again. Millions died of this disease due to failure of the Ethiopian government
and its health department to educate. Due to this failure to protect their people
World Medical & Health Policy, Vol. 10, No. 3, 2018
320
doi: 10.1002/wmh3.278
#2018 Policy Studies Organization

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