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Digital resources related to the history of HIV
We have compiled some primary and secondary digital resources from the University of Edinburgh and beyond on the history of HIV, including international resources.
Journal Articles
Misadventure in Muirhouse. HIV infection: a modern plague and persisting public health problem, R Robertson, Volume 47: Issue 1: 2017, Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
This will be of particular interest and importance to Edinburgh and Scottish medicine. It describes the events in one general medical practice in Edinburgh, the Muirhouse Medical Group, and their impact and relationship to the AIDS pandemic. For many, the origin of HIV in the UK is now history.
A History of HIV Discovery, AAAS Science
It is almost 20 years since HIV was first isolated and identified as the cause of AIDS. This Viewpoint by Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute provides fresh insights into the frustrations and triumphs of the discovery of HIV, seen through the eyes of the French virologist whose team first identified this new human retrovirus.
Link: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/298/5599/1727.full
Personal historical perspective of HIV, BMJ Journals
These two papers outline the underlying principle of HIV and the differing epidemiologies in Africa, the USA and in Edinburgh. The underlying immunosuppression of HIV in Africa was initially hidden behind common infections and HIV first came to world awareness in focal areas of the USA as a disease seemingly limited to gay males. The epidemic of intravenous drug abuse in Edinburgh was associated with overlapping epidemics of bloodborne viruses like hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.
Link: https://pmj.bmj.com/content/96/1137/417.abstract
The history and challenge of HIV prevention, The Lancet, ScienceDirect
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has become part of the contemporary global landscape. Few predicted its effect on mortality and morbidity or its devastating social and economic consequences, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Successful responses have addressed sensitive social factors surrounding HIV prevention, such as sexual behaviour, drug use, and gender equalities, countered stigma and discrimination, and mobilised affected communities; but such responses have been few and far between.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(08)60884-3
Books/thesis
HIV in the UK: Voices from the Epidemic, Taylor & Francis Group
This book presents a compelling account of the unfolding of the epidemic and the initiatives that made all the difference in the care and prevention of HIV in the UK from the early 1980s to the present time. Drawing on interviews with people with HIV, doctors and nurses involved in their care, leaders of AIDS charities, activists, and politicians, it identifies and describes the models of care developed in response to the onset of the HIV epidemic, and its impact on NHS and voluntary organizations.
Link: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429401107
A Tale of One City - A History of HIV/AIDS Policy-Making in Edinburgh, 1982-1994, Helen Coyle, University of Edinburgh
This thesis seeks to provide a much needed local perspective by examining the dynamics of policy-making in Edinburgh - the so-called `AIDS Capital of Europe' - during the period 1982-94.
Link: https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/6924
Organisations with online resources
Policies, Postcards and Prophylactics: a project to catalogue and conserve LHSA’s UNESCO-awarded HIV/AIDS collections (1983-2010), Lothian Health Services Archive
This 12-month project will complete the cataloguing and offer comprehensive conservation of the HIV/AIDS collections inscribed to the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register in 2011, and a supplementary HIV/AIDS collection. Of the 12 collections, four remain uncatalogued and all require conservation treatment.
Link: http://www.lhsa.lib.ed.ac.uk/projects/HIVAIDSCollections.htm
HIV AND AIDS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM (UK), Avert
Organisation dedicated to global information and education on HIV and AIDS, this link is focused on HIV and AIDS in the United Kingdom specifically with key points, figures and more. Information regarding Populations most affected by HIV in the UK, People who inject drugs (PWID), Heterosexual black African men and women, transgender and other key populations impacted. There is also information on HIV testing and counselling (HTC) in the UK and prevention programmes.
Link: https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-around-world/western-central-europe-north-america/uk
An oral history in the UK AIDS era, Health Care Workers in HIV Online
The development of the relationships grew organically out of the HIV/AIDS crisis that faced the care team, patients and their friends, partners and family. Includes audio files
Link: https://www.healthcareworkersinhiv.org.uk/category/interview-themes/relationships
A Legacy of Care: Additional Photography Information, HRSA
This project traces the history of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, the largest government response to HIV and AIDS. [Photography]
Link: https://hab.hrsa.gov/livinghistory/voices/legacy-photography.htm
HIV in the UK statistics – 2018, National Aids Trust
Stay informed with the latest facts and figures on HIV in the UK, a detailed page with information UK statistics from 2018 from a trusted source, including detailed statistics.
Link: https://www.nat.org.uk/about-hiv/hiv-statistics
The ACT UP Oral History Project Online
The ACT UP Oral History Project is a collection of interviews with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York. The purpose of this project is to present comprehensive, complex, human, collective, and individual pictures of the people who have made up ACT UP/New York. These men and women of all races and classes have transformed entrenched cultural ideas about homosexuality, sexuality, illness, health care, civil rights, art, media, and the rights of patients.
Link: http://www.actuporalhistory.org/index1.html
A timeline of AIDS/HIV, HIV (Government body)
The HIV.gov Timeline reflects the history of the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic from the first reported cases in 1981 to the present—where advances in HIV prevention, care, and treatment offer hope for a long, healthy life to people who are living with, or at risk for, HIV and AIDS.
Link: https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/history/hiv-and-aids-timeline
The History of HIV and AIDS in the United States, Healthline Online
Broad article covering the history of HIV and AIDS in the United States of America, including information on the start of the pandemic there, research, figures, treatment and prevention.
Link: https://www.healthline.com/health/hiv-aids/history#numbers
Global Health Observatory (GHO) data on HIV/AIDS, World Health Organisation (WHO)
A summary of the global HIV epidemic including trends, images and maps.
Link: https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/hiv-aids
AIDS Education Global Information System (AEGIS)
AEGiS is one of the largest HIV/AIDS databases in the world, with a global online treatment information library and news archive
Link: https://i-base.info/aegis-archive/
HIV AND AIDS IN CHINA, AVERT (Global information and education on HIV and AIDS)
China accounts for 3% of new HIV infections globally each year. In 2018, a 14% rise in new infections was reported, with 40,000 in the second quarter alone.
Link: https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-around-world/asia-pacific/china
HIV and AIDS Timeline, NPIN
The National Prevention Information Network has put together resources on the timeline of HIV and Aids. CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) has played an historic role in addressing the HIV epidemic in the United States and around the world, this resource covers from 1980 to present.
Link: https://npin.cdc.gov/pages/hiv-and-aids-timeline#1980
Project: HIV & AIDS, SCRAN
Edinburgh accounted for over 40% of the HIV/AIDS cases in the UK in the 1990's and the Lothian Health Board worked hard to produce a range of campaigns to make sure as many people as possible were made aware of the dangers of the disease and how to avoid infection. Database on an Edinburgh based HIV and AIDS project with access to further records within the project.
Link: https://www.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?usi=005-000-008-059-C&scache=2fdx92o6e7&searchdb=scran
HIV: reality: discover real stories about HIV in the UK: understanding the facts is key to fighting prejudice and protecting yourself and others / Aware Ltd, Wellcome Library
Discover more about the realities of living with HIV in the United Kingdom with Wellcome Library.
Collection: AIDS posters, Wellcome Library
Over 3000 digitised public health posters relating to AIDS, from 99 countries, are freely available to view and download. The poster collection complements the Library’s rich holdings of ephemera relating to AIDS and the AIDS crisis, such as leaflets and information booklets.
Link: https://wellcomelibrary.org/collections/digital-collections/aids-posters/
HIV in a pandemic - Early diagnosis is more crucial than ever, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
With the International AIDS Conference starting virtually on 6 July, amidst a global pandemic of another virus, it is more important now than ever that we maintain vital research into saving lives from HIV. By Dr Katherine Atkins, Associate Professor of Infectious Disease Modelling at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Link: https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/expert-opinion/hiv-pandemic-early-diagnosis-more-crucial-ever
‘Test and Treat’ reduces new HIV infections by a third in southern Africa communities, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Results from largest ever HIV prevention trial suggest strategy could make a significant contribution to controlling epidemic
The AIDS problem in Scotland: what everyone should know, Wellcome Library
Leaflet (January 1987) giving information about AIDS / HIV and ways to prevent infection. Authors, Scottish Health Education Group
Link: https://wellcomelibrary.org/collections/digital-collections/aids-posters/
Living Memory Association: Remember When
Oral history project archive
Link: https://livingmemory.org.uk/rememberWhen/queering/
Magazines/media
AIDS 1969: HIV, History, and Race
Speaking about the disconnect between who is being burdened by HIV and who is being depicted within representations of HIV, a detailed study on the connections between HIV, history and race.
Link: http://drainmag.com/aids-1969-hiv-history-and-race/
A History of Erasing Black Artists and Bodies from the AIDS Conversation, Hyperallergic Magazine
This article covers the impact of systematic racism in the coverage of HIV/AIDS in museum/gallery environments, despite the fact it impacts black communities at disproportionately high rates. Protesters argued this reality needed to be better reflected in the roster of artists featured in the exhibition and more black staff at all levels of leadership.
Observing the 1980s, Subect > HIV/AIDS, British Library
In this resource please click ‘Subject’ followed by HIV/AIDS for interviews held in the 1980s by Lewis, Haydn and Ward, Paul for fascinating insights on life in the United Kingdom with HIV/AIDS.
Through Positive Eyes: living with HIV and Aids - a photo essay, The Guardian Online, December 2020
These photographs and stories were produced by people living with HIV, who had been on a five-month workshop that developed their visual approaches and confronted the stigma associated with the illness.
How Edinburgh became the Aids capital of Europe, BBC Scotland News, 2019
In the mid-1980s Edinburgh became known as the Aids capital of Europe. A new deadly disease, cheap heroin and the hardline attitudes of the authorities were the ingredients for a public health disaster.
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-50473604
AIDS Oral History Project
Aimed at capturing factual, contextual, and personal information that will enhance the written record, the AIDS Oral History Projects document the experience of physicians, nurses, and scientists who played key roles in the early years of the AIDS epidemic.
Link: https://www.library.ucsf.edu/archives/aids/oral-history-project/
Precarious Structures: HIV, Museums, and History, ONCurating Magazine
Article on an exhibition titled ‘Imágenes Seropositivas. Prácticas artísticas en torno al HIV durante los años 90 (Seropositive Images: Artistic Practices Related to HIV During the 1990s)’. It took place in La Ene, a museum occupying a sixty-square-meter, two-room flat in the downtown area of Buenos Aires, Argentina and ran from November - December 2017, by appointment only.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, HIV
Overview of the goals set out by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation regarding HIV, including information regarding the challenge, information on the presence of HIV as well as information on progress so far and planned ambitions for the future.
Link: https://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Health/HIV#OurStrategy
Chasing a cure: the history of HIV/Aid, The Guardian Online
In the early 1980s, HIV/Aids was seen as fatal. But thanks to advances in medicine and healthcare, many patients now live long, full lives. This scientific success story, however, brings new challenges to an ageing population with HIV
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/breakthrough-science/2017/may/15/chasing-a-cure-the-history-of-hiv-aids
Coronavirus: Three lessons from the AIDS crisis
“The U.S. made serious mistakes when the HIV virus and AIDS emerged. Those errors cost many lives.” Laurie Marhoefer, Associate Professor of History at the University of Washington writes about lessons from the Aids crisis in relation to coronavirus.
Link: https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-three-lessons-from-the-aids-crisis-133575
Graphic Communication: A UK HIV/AIDS Design Archive, HIV Testing and beyond
This site is a historic visual archive of promotional campaigns and graphic ephemera, compiled in order to examine changes in health promotion approaches, messages and concerns around HIV/AIDS in the UK and Republic of Ireland, acting as a reference source for the development of future communications.
Link: https://www.hivgraphiccommunication.com/testing
What You Don’t Know About AIDS Could Fill A Museum: Curatorial Ethics and the Ongoing Epidemic in the 21st Century
A collection of essays, conversations, visual projects, reprints, and personal reflections from academics, artists, activists, writers, and others from around the world committed to the ongoing response to HIV.
Video Sources
How Princess Diana changed attitudes to Aids, BBC
In the mid-80s, HIV/Aids terrified the world because of a lack of understanding as well as misinformation, this video covers the historical significance of Princess Diana opening the UK's first purpose built HIV/Aids unit as well as shaking the hand of a man suffering with the illness.
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazine-39490507
Basic Course in HIV - History of HIV | Center for AIDS Research, Harvard University
In conjunction with Brian Zanoni of Harvard Medical School the Harvard University CFAR presents the BASIC Course in HIV. BASIC Course in HIV is a basic but comprehensive course on HIV. Please allow 5 seconds for each video to begin playing.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D0fxPupD78&ab_channel=HarvardUniversity
#MCNYlive: Chronicling a Crisis: Writers on the History of HIV/AIDS, Museum of NY City
From the earliest reported cases in the 1980s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has spurred New Yorkers to innovate new forms of social services, expand conceptions of family, fight social stigma, and push for greater political and medical intervention. Inspired by our exhibition, "AIDS at Home: Art and Everyday Activism," Anne-christine D’Adesky, David France, and Tim Murphy—three authors whose works offer a searingly honest glimpse into the ongoing history of the virus and its impact—will be joined by journalist Mathew Rodriguez for a conversation about challenges of writing about HIV/AIDS across literary genres.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z8wbeHyfgU&ab_channel=MuseumofCityNY
Legacy of Care, the Health Resources and Services Administration (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
The 20-year history of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program is a journey of exceptional courage and hope. The narrators of this film are just a few of the many thousands who lived through it. These individuals have chosen to tell their stories anonymously, placing the emphasis on the story itself.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOGD8dueHeI&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=HRSAtube
What we knew about HIV and AIDS in 1985, ABC Science
In 1985, a three-year-old child sparked a huge controversy when she was banned from her local pre-school because some of the parents considered her a grave threat to the other children.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHILYeBaIVU&ab_channel=ABCScience
Sunderland Talks. Episode 7: The History of HIV, University of Sunderland
Drew Dalton, a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University Of Sunderland, talks us through the history of HIV, the common misconceptions and how those living with the virus are able to live relatively normal lives thanks to the help and medications now available.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNTtpA_Hgdo&ab_channel=UniversityofSunderland
AIDS iceberg. Wellcome Library, 1987
A television advertisement warning people of AIDS and encouraging them to read the government-produced leaflet, 'AIDS Don't Die of Ignorance'. This video was made from material preserved by the BFI National Archive
Link: https://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b16797140#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0
Other sources
The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in China: History, Current Strategies and Future Challenges, Guilford Press
This article reviews the epidemic of HIV infection and AIDS, the Chinese national policy development in response to the epidemic, and disparities between policies and the need for AIDS prevention in China. The HIV epidemic in China has gone through three phases, and it is now at the rapid expansion phase. Since 1988, HIV/AIDS has been addressed from a legal perspective, but in the early stages laws and regulations actually hindered HIV control efforts. Since 1995 efforts have been made to improve policy decisions.
Link: https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/aeap.16.3.5.7.35521
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