Newsweek Profiles ‘AIDS at 20’
To mark the 20th anniversary of the first published report on AIDS, the June 11 edition of Newsweek features a variety of articles on the history and future of the epidemic. Below are some article excerpts:
- "AIDS at 20: The Deadly Progress of a Plague": Looks at how the HIV/AIDS epidemic has "changed how we think and how we love, what we teach our children and what words we say in public." Traces the growth of HIV/AIDS in the United States and abroad and examines the evolution of prevention and education efforts designed to combat the spread of the disease (Begley, Newsweek, 6/11).
- "Can He Find a Cure?": Profiles "AIDS Crusader" Seth Berkley, president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and his efforts to develop an AIDS vaccine. Examines AIDS vaccine funding efforts and looks at eight possible vaccine strategies, including vaccines that use live attenuated HIV, "whole killed HIV," recombinant HIV proteins and "naked DNA," among others (Cowley, Newsweek, 6/11).
- "A 20-Year Toll": A timeline of HIV/AIDS-related events, with quotes from individuals involved with them, including Drs. Michael Gottlieb and Harold Jaffe, former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and members of AIDS groups such as ACT UP and Gay Men's Health Crisis (McGinn, Newsweek, 6/11).
- "Our House is on Fire!": Profiles AIDS activist Phill Wilson and his efforts to bring HIV/AIDS prevention messages to the African-American community. Examines the issues of stigma, homophobia, poverty, racism and "poor access to health care" that surround the epidemic and its impact on African Americans (Clemetson, Newsweek, 6/11).
- "The Angry Prophet is Dying": Profiles Larry Kramer, AIDS activist and founder of ACT UP, who is HIV-positive and dying of end-stage liver disease. Documents Kramer's involvement with the epidemic and his current battles against HIV and hepatitis (France, Newsweek, 6/11).