About the Book

Every Thing Counts is the history of a public health effort that grew organically from the needs of an HIV community in the Bronx, drawing on voluminous energy, passionate commitment, and social activism.

It is a firsthand description of the relationship between poverty and disease, and the history of a loving, dedicated collaboration among people of diverse backgrounds who worked together throughout the twenty-five years of the program.

The book calls on research participants’ contributions, case records, clinicians’ perspectives, and searing memories of illness, death, and resilience. It is an illuminating treatise on community activism in a time of crisis.

About the Author

Anitra Pivnick is a medical anthropologist and one of five co-founders of the Women’s Center, a community-based HIV/AIDS program in the Bronx that began in the early years of the HIV epidemic before there was any viable treatment. Dr. Pivnick has a Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University, and is a member of the Department of Family and Social Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University.