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Does Hiv or Poverty Cause Aids? Biomedical and Epidemiological Perspectives

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Abstract

This paper contrasts biomedical and epidemiological approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of disease, and uses Collingwood’s “principle of the relativity of causes” to show how different approaches focus on different causal factors reflecting different interests. By distinguishing between the etiology of a disease and an epidemic, the paper argues that, from an epidemiological perspective, poverty is an important causal factor in the African AIDS epidemic and that emphasizing this should not be considered incompatible with recognizing the causal necessity of HIV for the AIDS disease.

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  1. Department of Philosophy, Smith College, Northampton, MA, U.S.A., 01063

    Albert Mosley

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  1. Albert Mosley
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Correspondence to Albert Mosley.

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Mosley, A. Does Hiv or Poverty Cause Aids? Biomedical and Epidemiological Perspectives. Theor Med Bioeth 25, 399–421 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-004-2076-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-004-2076-7

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