Dispatches from the AIDS Pandemic

Abstract

Abstract Dispatches from the AIDS Pandemic: A Public Health Story examines the history of the AIDS pandemic through the eyes of key individuals, including the authors, who were involved in the response to the disease at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Much of the material is based on interviews conducted as part of the CDC’s AIDS oral history project, as well as hundreds of original source documents. The chapters are organized in three sections, reflecting the different tones and viewpoints of the authors and persons quoted. Section I focuses on the United States and takes the reader from the earliest days of the recognized epidemic, starting with the first five cases of Pneumocystis pneumonia in previously healthy, young homosexual men reported in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) in June 1981. Section II describes CDC’s initial AIDS efforts beyond the United States in Africa and Thailand, along with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) nascent AIDS program. Section III summarizes and comments on scientific and public health advances to date, including the origins of HIV and the development of life-saving treatments. The book’s distinctive and numerous firsthand reports offer a unique opportunity for readers to gain insight into the history and evolution of the pandemic and efforts leading to the global response.