The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the Movie “And the Band Played On”

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Briefly describe this “new disease” as it was unfolding in the 1980s and seen by the characters in the film? Why wasn’t the agent of this ‘new disease” readily detected?

In the early eighties, medical researchers did not have a clear idea about the origins of AIDS or its spread. They believed that it could be triggered by a sexually-transmitted virus. In particular, they knew that many of the patients had sexual intercourse with one another, but they could not explain why this disease was widespread in the gay community. So, they could not confirm this hypothesis. Furthermore, they assumed that it could be caused by a combination of causes such as the mutation of already-existing viruses. There are several reasons that can explain why the cause of this epidemic was not discoverer as soon as possible.

First of all, the government of the United States did not want to spend money on the research because the HIV virus allegedly affected only homosexuals. It should be noted that at that time, many of the officials were prejudiced against the gay community. This is why medical workers could not make any progress for a long time. Furthermore, there was very little cooperation among researchers and medical institutions. For example, the CDC investigators could not get access to the information about donors who could transmit the HIV virus. Finally, researchers from various countries did not share their findings with one another while searing for the virus. These are the main obstacles that can be identified.

Early in the film there was a great deal of debate about closing the Bath Houses in NYC and San Francisco. what was the justification for this, as depicted in the film? and do you think closing the Bath Houses was justified, given the circumstances at the time?

Public administrators chose to close the bathhouses in San Francisco and New York because according to the finding of CDC investigators, the majority of HIV patients were infected in the bathhouses. In my opinion, the intention to close the bathhouses could be justified, especially at the time, when healthcare professionals had to find ways of limiting the spread of the epidemic. Certainly, this decision could violate people’s civic rights. Nevertheless, it could save a great number of people. This task was critical because people like Gaëtan Dugas could have infected many people in the bathhouses. Certainly, nowadays such a measure is not justified because the HIV virus cannot be associated with certain locations such as bathhouses, but CDC did not about it in the early eighties.

Briefly explain how the CDC researchers and local health authorities”proved” that this new disease was in fact a sexually transmitted disease (STD)?

The CDC researchers found it difficult to prove that AIDS was a sexually transmitted disease. At first, they had to rely only on the findings of cluster studies which indicated that many of the patients, suffering from this disease, had sexual intercourse with one another. However, they could find definitive proof of this conjecture only after the discovery of the HIV virus. This is one of the reasons why medical workers could effectively help patients and prevent people from being infected.

Would you have anything different in terms of primary prevention, knowing what you know about HIV? What sort of prevention strategy would you have implemented back then? Be specific

Medical workers could have taken several steps that could be useful for the primary prevention of the epidemic. One of them is to encourage patients to use condoms during their sexual intercourse. This precaution could have protected a great number of people. Furthermore, it was vital to identify people who could have contact with the patients suffering from AIDS. This task could be more easily accomplished provided that medical researchers had more resources. These steps can be justified even if one takes into account the information that was available at that time. Medical workers knew that AIDS could be a contagious disease, and these strategies could have limited the spread of the epidemic in the United States as well as other countries.

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The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the Movie “And the Band Played On”

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