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Reviews : Private Choices and Public Health: The AIDS Epidemic in an Economic Perspective. Thomas J Philipson, Richard A Posner. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1993. Hardback, 274 pp., £23.95. ISBN 0-674-70738-9

Studies like Maynard’s on the costs of social care in AIDS are useful but have been criticised for failing to reach the heart of the issue. Against this background, and even acknowledging that their work is unlikely to be definitive, enter Philipson and Posner. The key thesis of the book is that the epidemiological models used to make predictions about infection spread have failed because they do not account for the fact that here we are dealing with rational human beings engaged in behaviours which are ’avoidable’. In itself there is