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\’This book is about men, viruses, and difficult choices. And it is also about how an adversary can sometimes seem more ferocious and bloodthirsty, or on the contrary more harmless and peaceful than it actually is.\’

Immunologist Guido Silvestri is one of the world\’s leading experts on HIV. Together with Roberto Burioni he invented the transversal pact for science. And he convinced representatives of the Italian government to sign it.

In this book Guido Silvestri introduces us to the complex and fascinating relationships between human organism and virus, explaining through the metaphor of a successful war strategy how in modern scientific vision this relationship must find its balance between fight and peaceful coexistence. Scientific notions (of microbiology, genetics, immunology and virology) and hints about  history of virology alternate with the author\’s personal experiences and considerations on the importance of scientific method and research, on the ethics of medicine and on the vocation of those who practice it, giving life to a book that will be relevant even in the most current debates.


Guido Silvestri, MD, is Chief of the Division of Microbiology and Immunology at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Georgia, USA. In addition, he is a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Comparative Pathology as well as Professor and Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine. Since 1993, he has been involved in studies of AIDS pathogenesis, prevention and therapy. Dr. Silvestri is involved in the Consortium for AIDS Vaccine Studies in nonhuman primates, the Collaboratorium for AIDS Research on Eradication and the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology and Immunogen Discovery, and has received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). He has authored or co-authored 233 peer-reviewed publications in this field. His work has been quoted more than 19,000 times and has been presented in plenary sessions at all the major HIV/AIDS conferences, such as the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunities (CROI), the International AIDS Society and Keystone Symposia as well as invited seminars in 27 countries.

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