Abraham Verghese - Communities Respond To The AIDS Crisis - 05/11/95

Abraham Verghese was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and came to the U.S. in 1973. He attended medical school at East Tennessee State University, then accepted a position at Boston City Hospital conducting research. In 1985, he returned to Tennessee as an assistant professor at East Tennessee State University School of Medicine. In his role as an infectious disease specialist, he witnessed firsthand the rapid spread of AIDS. His book, My Own Country: A Doctor's Story, was selected by Time magazine as one of the top five books of 1994. In the book, he describes a community's reaction to AIDS, detailing one doctor's personal struggle to provide care to AIDS patients and their families. He currently serves as Professor of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Disease and Geriatrics at Texas Tech University in El Paso, Texas.