AIDS, Rhetoric, and Medical Knowledge

Examining the formation of scientific knowledge about the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, Alex Preda highlights the metaphors, narratives, and classifications which framed scientific hypotheses about the nature of the infectious agent and its transmission. Preda compares these arguments with those used in the scientific analysis of SARS. He demonstrates how scientific knowledge about epidemics is shaped by cultural narratives and categories of social thought through a detailed review of biomedical publications.