The age of AIDS. Part 2.

The second in an extensive and ambitious two-part series looking at AIDS and attempting to give a chronological account of AIDS awareness across the globe. This part looks at the rapid spread of the virus across the globe from the late 1980s through the 1990s and we hear more from AIDS activists in this part than from clinicians as in Part 1. In particular we hear from the situation in Africa which had reached epidemic proportions with more and more children were being infected by their mothers. Meanwhile in New York the gay community was getting increasingly agitated at lack of government involvement. But Bill Clinton's influence was enormous and after the combination therapy was introduced he set up emergency funds to ensure even those with no money could receive treatment. Availability was not made available across the globe however. In Brazil, for instance, the government would not buy in the drugs because they were too expensive. However, AIDS prevention was still a problematic area involving the church, morality and humanitarian bodies. In many countries, Russia and China in particular, denied there was any problem with AIDS in their country despite there being an estimated 1 000 000 infected people in each country. By the end of the 1990s over 20 000 000 people had died of AIDS and there was still a problem with funding to stop the epidemic. Senator Jesse Helms was swayed by, of all people, Bono, and George Bush responded too by giving funds to poorer communities worldwide and a court battle was won against the African government that they couldn't deny AIDS treatment to their people.