This volume records the speed and nature of the public and official response to AIDS in the UK, describing how, in less than 15 years, a network of organizations developed, devoted to the study, containment and treatment of this new, critical disease.

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 fascinating and scholarly account, Virginia Berridge analyses a remarkable period in contemporary British history, and exposes the reaction of the British public and British political and medical elites to one of the most challenging issues of this century.

Berridge's book is the most exhaustive and persuasive study to date of policy making for the AIDS/HIV epidemic in any country. As a result of industrious interviewing and reading over more than half a decade, she and her late colleague, Phil Strong, acquired extraordinary knowledge of the politics of policy making for the epidemic in the UK ... she makes good use of the research and analysis of other scholars, crediting them thoroughly in both text and notes.