If so, can you give me a brief summary providing as many specific details as possible? It will be part of my exam, and as I have seen the movie already, I just want to make sure I got everything...
2007-02-06 11:02:23 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Entertainment & Music ➔ Movies
The story of the discovery of the AIDS epidemic and the political infighting of the scientific community hampering the early fight with it.
educational lesson on HIV and AIDS.
And the Band Played On-- its about Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic is a book written by San Francisco Chronicle journalist Randy Shilts (original copyright 1987) chronicling the discovery and spread of HIV and AIDS, with a special emphasis on alleged government indifference to what was initially perceived as a "gay disease." The title of the book appears to be a reference to the oft-repeated story about the dance band in the first-class lounge of the Titanic, who kept playing as the ship was sinking.
other info
extensive discussion of Gaetan Dugas (who died in 1984 [1]), who was labelled the "Patient Zero" of AIDS (a claim which was challenged in later years). Randy Shilts himself died of AIDS in 1994.
the first European to catch the disease was Grethe Rask, a Danish surgeon working in a hospital in rural Zaire under primitive conditions.
Dr Rask, an open and monogamous lesbian, was from Thisted, north of the Lim Fjord, where her companion lived. Danes from north of the fjord were known for an independent, plain-spoken nature. She chose to work in Africa, rather than Copenhagen, because it gave her a chance to run a department, or even a whole hospital, by herself, without first spending decades under the eye of male supervisors, as she would have in Denmark.
She accepted that primitive conditions were the price of working in a Third-World hospital. She couldn't have gotten infected in any of the more common ways, since she was a lesbian living a celibate life in Africa and was not a drug addict, but she was at great risk from needle sticks and similar hazards in a hospital where normally-disposable gloves & needles were resterilized also reused until obviously worn out (which made sterile procedure nearly impossible).
2007-02-06 11:14:06 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Better book than movie, though
2007-02-06 11:23:58 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well said, Linnrose2, I couldn't be more specific.
2007-02-06 20:53:42 · answer #3 · answered by khachik1975 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋