Itano, Nicole

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Itano, Nicole

PERSONAL:

Born in CO. Education: Graduated from Yale University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Athens, Greece. E-mail—nicoleitano@yahoo.com.

CAREER:

Freelance journalist; previously worked for the Times-Picayune, New Orleans, LA.

WRITINGS:

No Place Left to Bury the Dead: Denial, Despair, and Hope in the African AIDS Pandemic, Atria Book (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Philadelphia Enquirer, Times-Picayune, and New Republic.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer and freelance journalist Nicole Itano graduated from Yale University and has gone on to contribute to a number of periodicals, including the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Philadelphia Enquirer, and New Republic. She has also worked on the staff of the Times-Picayune in New Orleans. She has reported events, both political and social, from a number of countries, often spending considerable time in the countries where she is reporting to get the most in-depth account possible. Itano has written a number of major stories, including about the end of the civil war in Liberia, the AIDS epidemic in Africa, the political crisis in Zimbabwe, and the varied opinions regarding Kosovo and its future. While reporting on the AIDS crisis in Africa, Itano was particularly affected by the way the disease has ravaged the women of that country. She ultimately made the decision to remain in South Africa for an extended period of time, settling in Johannesburg for more than five years, continuing to serve as a foreign correspondent regarding the disease and its progression, but also delving deeper into the most heart-wrenching aspects of the crisis, an experience that resulted in her writing a book, No Place Left to Bury the Dead: Denial, Despair, and Hope in the African AIDS Pandemic.

No Place Left to Bury the Dead brings the truth of the AIDS epidemic in the twenty-first century into the spotlight. At a time when most people believe that AIDS, while not curable, has been brought under control by the various medications and drug cocktails available to keep the disease at bay, Itano reveals the terrible conditions for AIDS patients in Africa and the criminal lack of treatment, or even education concerning the illness and how it is spread, in that part of the world. She sets out to debunk many of the myths that Americans proliferate regarding the reasons why the AIDS epidemic has reached such astronomical proportions, chief among which is the idea that the people in that part of the world are sexually promiscuous and careless in their relations. In reality, according to Itano, contact with the West, and particularly Western missionaries, destroyed what was once a coherent system of sexual morality—polygamy—that had its own rules and regulations. Today, many African men may have only one official wife but still retain multiple sexual partners, who have very little protection from AIDS or abandonment. Itano also addresses the issue of poverty and the inability to pay for the drugs that are necessary to keep the disease in stasis, or even to maintain proper nutrition, as most AIDS medications must be taken with food. She also discusses the policies of the U.S. government that allow American pharmaceutical companies to limit the availability of the drugs in that part of the world.

Itano did more than simply observe the ravages of the disease; she lived with it. She spent time living with women who were battling the illness, working alongside them as they tried to maintain their lives and their dignity even as they grew sicker and sicker. Clay Evans, reviewing for the Daily Camera Web site, remarked that "it's the personal touch of Itano's time spent with women suffering from the epidemic that make the book more than just another Western ‘analysis’ of a crisis in a far-flung land." A contributor for Kirkus Reviews found the book "searing and somber, punctuated with illuminating flickers of hope." Reviewing for Library Journal, Tina Neville had a similar opinion, commenting that "this singular book illustrates the despair of poverty and death but also inspires hope for the future."