Fifteen years ago the AIDS `epidemic' did not exist on the public agenda. In just over a decade the public and official response to the disease has resulted in the development of a whole network of organizations devoted to the study, containment, and practical treatment of AIDS. In this important and original analysis of AIDS policy, Virginia Berridge examines the speed and nature of the official (and unofficial) response to this new and critical historical event. From the initial public alarm that resulted from a lack of scientific certainty about this new contagious disease, through a brief phase of quasi-wartime emergency, to the current period of `normalization' with panic levels subsiding as the growth rate slows and the fear of the unknown recedes, this is an important record of a remarkable period in contemporary British history.
