AIDS in historical perspective

December 1, 2021, World Aids Day

According to data from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), the number of new HIV infections in Latin America is estimated to have increased 21% between 2010 and 2019, while the number of people dying of AIDS-related death have decreased from 41000 in 2010 to 37 thousand in 2019.

To mark the international AIDS day, we have prepared a selection of articles, posts and stories that address different aspects of the history of AIDS, such as AIDS exhibitions in museums, the decline of the AIDS programme in Brazil, the successes and setbacks in the fight against Aids, public health campaigns, the role of social movements, the response of international institutions such as WHO and much more.

AIDS, Activism, and International Agencies in Brazil, 1987–1996 Marcos Cueto, Science editor of HCSM, published with Gabriel Lopes, “Braiding Public Health and Human Rights: AIDS, Activism, and International Agencies in Brazil, 1987–1996” Latin American Research Review (2022). This article examines the emergence of a synergy that allowed the early development of what was once considered the best anti-AIDS program in the developing world.

AIDS in museums and archives In recent years there has been a resurgence of museum exhibitions on the history of HIV and AIDS. This article by historian of medicine Manon S. Parry highlights some problems of this kind of exhibition.

The end of AIDS’ exceptionalism in Brazil The decline of the AIDS Programme in Brazil is the topic of a new article written by Marcos Cueto, Science editor of HCSM, and Gabriel Lopes Post-doctoral researcher at Casa Oswaldo Cruz / Fiocruz

A global player in the politics of Aids Marcos Cueto, science editor of HCSM, and Gabriel Lopes, postdoctoral researcher at Casa de Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), explore the Brazilian participation in international debates on whether antiretroviral drugs were commodities or public goods.

HIV/AIDS, its stigma and history Our science editors André Felipe Cândido da Silva and Marcos Cueto discuss the HIV prevention policy adopted in Brazil since December 2017: the pre-exposure prophylaxis.

AIDS Between Science and Politics Peter Piot, founding executive director of UNAIDS, recounts his experience as a clinician, scientist, and activist fighting the disease from its earliest manifestation to today.

Successes and setbacks in the fight against Aids The medical anthropologist Richard Parker, professor at Columbia University, examines the social and political aspects of HIV/AIDS in Latin America.

Faces of an Aids-free generation This UNAIDS book tells the stories of 12 African mothers living with HIV and their children born free of the virus.

Aids, politics and culture The online exhibition “Surviving and Thriving” tells the story of Aids from its first cases in the US, in the 80’s. It also shows personal stories and governmental campaigns. Available at the US National Library of Medicine website.

Una etnografía sobre personas viviendo con sida Evangelina Anahí Bidegain, del Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Ciudad de México, comenta el libro “Cuando la enfermedad se silencia” en el último número de HCSM.

Public health campaigns: getting the message across This book edited in 2009 by the World Health Organization brings together posters from public health campaigns.

Exile within Exiles: Herbert Daniel, Gay Brazilian Revolutionary. December, 2018 Herbert Daniel was a complex figure in social activism from the mid-1960s until his death in 1992. As a medical student, he joined a revolutionary guerrilla organization but was forced to conceal his sexual identity from his comrades, a situation Daniel described as internal exile. He spent much of the 1970s in Europe,  returned to Brazil in…

“Entre 30 y 35% de los diagnósticos son muy tardíos” Una breve entrevista con Massimo Ghidinelli, Jefe de la Unidad de VIH de la Organización Panamericana de la Salud, sobre el perfil epidemiológico actual del SIDA en América Latina y el Caribe.

 The World Health Organization: A history The book written by Marcos Cueto (science editor of HCSM), Theodore M. Brown (University of Rochester) and Elizabeth Fee (in memorian, National Library of Medicine) was launched by Cambridge University Press.