@documenting-hiv-uk.bsky.social
Project to survey HIV and Aids archive collections in the UK. Based at West Sussex Records Office in Chichester, West Sussex.
The report outlines a 2-year project surveying HIV and AIDS archive collections in the UK, detailing their locations, strengths, and weaknesses. It also shares findings from private archives and offers recommendations for preserving and improving access to collections www.wsro.org.uk/special-proj...
03.06.2025 08:17 β π 4 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0
Dr McKay conducted a series of oral history interviews in Canada and North America as part of his research, and fifty of his interviews were later deposited at the British Library.
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www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...
#HIV #AIDS #archives #oralhistory #PatientZero
It was not until years later that Dugas was publicly redeemed through the work of Canadian historian, Richard McKay, who wrote a book on "Patient Zero: The Making of the AIDS Epidemic" in 2016.
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press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Dugas in the book was depicted as βcareless, sociopathic Typhoid Mary-like characterβ and this was picked up by the popular press.
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www.aidschicago.org/correcting-t...
Dugas would become vilified in Randy Shilts' 1987 book And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, due to his misunderstanding of the term βPatient Oβ used in the study to mean βPatient Zeroβ and therefore the originator of the disease.
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the...
Over the course of the investigation, the CDC came across Gaetan who was happy to cooperate with the study and helped confirm the hypothesis that AIDS was spread through sexual transmission, which led to the eventual discovery of the HIV virus in April 1984.
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By 1981, it had become clear that a new disease was emerging in USA and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) task force was set to βpursue the possibility of a cluster of cases connected by sexual contact within the last 5 yearsβ (Killing Patient Zero, 2019, 35:53).
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GaΓ«tan was a Canadian flight attendant who like many gay men of his generation saw βsex was kind of the gay manβs obligationβ¦because this was gay liberationβ (Killing Patient Zero, 2019, 21:50). He had multiple sexual partners across several cities particularly New York and San Francisco.
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#AtoZofHIVArchives
Z- Patient Zero (GaΓ«tan Dugas)
For the final post in the series, I have chosen GaΓ«tan Dugas (1953-1984), who is known in the history of HIV and AIDS as βPatient Zeroβ.
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Many of the HIV archive collections held in UK archives are due to efforts of people like Mike in preserving history of HIV and AIDS and their often unheralded work should be applauded.
Thanks Mike!
wellcomecollection.org/works/b74me3gw
#HIV #AIDS #Archives #PreP #historyofHIV
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He contacted the Wellcome Collection who agreed to be a place of deposit for the Archive and 10 collections were deposited including Mike Youleβs own personal papers, the archives of National AIDS Manual and International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW).
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In March 2012, he began work in establishing a national AIDS archive he had begun collecting material from individuals and organisations in the wider community.
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He is best known for publicising the concept of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PREP) for HIV and has studied the health economics of HIV therapy as well as ageing in HIV-positive people.
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Since 1996 he has been the Director of HIV Clinical Research at London's Royal Free Hospital as well as an Honorary Senior Lecturer in General Medicine at its associated medical school.
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Mike was one of the founders of the Kobler Clinic at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London in 1986, the first purpose built integrated care and research centre in the UK for HIV and associated conditions.
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#AtoZofHIVArchives
Y is for Dr Mike Youle
Mike Youle is a British doctor and clinical researcher specialising in HIV and AIDS treatment. He began treating HIV and AIDS patients at St Stephenβs Hospital (now Chelsea and Westminster) in London in the mid-1980s.
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By the 1990s, attitudes to safer sex were less taboo, and both the government and voluntary groups were more confident to produce bolder and explicit adverts, such as the highly successful HEA βMrs Dawsonβ TV advert (1991).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdT8...
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#HIV #AIDS #archives #safersex
The Health Education Authority (HEA) responsible for HIV public health campaigns struggled to produce safer sex literature which could use frank language and appeal to their intended audience, e.g. gay men, and not upset the Conservative government and morale campaigning groups.
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David Shenton, the British gay cartoonist was famous for lampooning the governmentβs efforts to promote safer sex to gay men in 1980s. He often ridiculed efforts within his regular comic strips published in Gay News and Capital Gay.
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In reply, THT stated:
βAlthough it was realised that the wording and/or pictures would be more than likely to cause offence in some quarters, and this was to be expected, it needs to be realised that such people were not the oneβs at whom this particular message was being targeted"
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In May 1985, Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) launched their first safer sex campaign with publication of the safer sex leaflet, Sex. The leaflet used explicit language and pictures and this was met by fierce opposition such as by the conservative moral campaign, Family and Youth Concern.
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HIV continues primarily to be transmitted through unprotected sex and practicing safer sex one of the main ways to prevent it. But how can you do this to ensure that the message is understood and adopted and what if people object either morally or politically to the safe sex message?
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#AtoZofHIVArchives
X β X-rated
It is not possible to talk about history of HIV and AIDS without talking about sex.
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The archives of Positively Women can be found out at the London Archives. They comprise of photographs, annual reports, newsletters, magazines and other publications demonstrating the breadth of the activity and the reach of its work from 1980 to date.
#HIV #AIDS #archives #women #history
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Sheila's full story has been adapted into a film available on the @positivelyuk website here:
positivelyuk.org/sheilas-story/
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One of the founders of the group, Sheila, explained the reason for setting it up:
βI went to a few HIV/AIDS support groups were very gay orientated which was fine, because they were doing a great job supporting each other, but it wasnβt fine for me because my needs werenβt being met."
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The absence of specific support for womenβs issues with HIV spurred on the creation of early HIV support groups like Positively Women, which was established in 1987.
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The National AIDS Manual of that year, on the topic of women and HIV focused on safer sex for lesbians who were seen as at increased risk and did not provide any guidance on issues of HIV and pregnancy, or issues surrounding HIV and the family.
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In the UK, for the first few decades of epidemic, there were fewer cases of women contracting the virus with 3% of people diagnosed with AIDS being women in 1988.
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#AtoZofHIVArchives
W - Women
HIV and women intersect in multiple ways from those living with the virus, to mother-child transmission and impact on the family to name a few. As of 2023, 53% of people living with HIV were women according to UNAIDS.
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