The Biology of Aids

Catalog description

In this course, we will examine the basic biology of HIV, including an understanding of the pathophysiology of HIV and AIDS and their impacts on the immune system. Topics we will explore include epidemiology, cell biology, basic genetics, virology, and the immune system, and their connection to the development of antiretroviral drugs and vaccines, testing for and diagnosis of HIV infection, and an understanding of the virus life cycle. We will also consider the roles of various structures of power and privilege and their influences on the initial outbreak response, the continued response to the pandemic, and the disproportionality of infection in marginalized groups, and how activism induced, and continues to bring about, progressive changes within those power structures.