And the Band Played On.
Ebola outbreak in 1976, Yambuku, Zaire. Near Ebola river. 88% death rate. The World Health Organization (WHO) contains the Ebola fever out break. Could aids have been contained??
HIV/AIDS 1977 First known case as of 1993 We now have tissue from 1959 and indirect evidence back to about 1910. The political attitude of the time was very anti gay. June 1981 – first report in CDC weekly newsletter
Meet - Don Francis
The Nerds
Mary Guinan meets Gayton Dugas at Dr Freeman Kean’s office
Visiting the Bathhouse. Phil Collins is Eddie Papazano
Bill Kraus & Keko
Richard Gear plays a composite character. He represents a gay man in the arts. “The Partys is over” “FRAIDS”
French Hospital administer asks Doctor to take his patients else where
PAC man – something is gobbling up the T cells
Meet Bob Gallo played by Alan Alda
Gaetan Dugas - Perfect Storm: Beautiful (everyone wants to be with them), Flight Attendant (perfect job for having dates all over the world), promiscuous (wanted to have many partners), Not sick right away (Dugas continued to work, travel and go to bathhouses for several years before he got sick)
News conference where CDC director was less than forthright. Meeting in SanFransico that showed anger in the gay community. No one was listening to the CDC investigatiors The politicians were not and neither was the gay community
Race to find the Virus: The French lab – The American lab – Don Francis at the CDC did not have the resources to be in the mix
A long and difficult process. It is in the blood supply.???!!! The blood supply industry was slow to respond to the problem. The film shows examples of Hemophilia and RH disease.
Paris found the AIDS virus Gallo’s lab and the French lab argue over credit. This disagreement slowed progress on the disease.
Bill Kraus gets AIDS Don Francis gets the Americans (Gallo) and the French Team (Pasture Institute) together, So progress can be made to finding a blood test.
End of Film 1990 or so. Virus found and blood test discovered. But no drug treatment yet discovered.
Still a scary time.
As time went on we discovered the drugs (protease inhibitors) that will help people with HIV/AIDS infections. The gay community closed the bath houses and all layers of our culture started being more careful about sexual relations. We have moved to a place where HIV is less of a problem but we still must always be concerned about risky sexual behavior.