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The Story of Aids

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The early years of the HIV-AIDS crisis, as told by the people who lived through it

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The Story of Aids: 2. Act Up fights back

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16/10/2021 GMT

2. Act Up fights back

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How the Aids protest group Act Up accelerated America's response to the crisis

How the protest group Act Up accelerated America's response to the HIV-Aids crisis, before a medical breakthrough in 1996 saw life-saving drugs introduced.

The rise of the Aids protest group Act Up accelerated America's response to the crisis.

It began in March of 1987, when the playwright Larry Kramer gave a speech at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York’s West Village, telling half the room to stand up. He bluntly informed those in attendance, that was how many people would be dead from Aids in just a few years, if they didn’t fight back.

The US government’s response to the HIV-Aids crisis had been slow, with President Reagan reticent to offend the conservative morals of the Christian Coalition who helped secure his election. In response, the Aids Coalition to Unleash Power - Act Up - took to the streets to demand politicians and public health agencies do more.

In this programme, we hear stories  from activists who themselves were living with Aids, who led audacious protests which helped secure numerous concessions from the US government and drugs companies, vastly accelerating the US response to the HIV-Aids crisis. 

We also hear how in a time when effective treatment was limited, the underworld of the Buyers Clubs stepped in to sell counterfeit medication to those unable to get onto official drugs trials, and hear of the snake-oil opportunists who profited from the desperation of terminally ill people. 

The early 1990s were the darkest days of the Aids crisis in America, as it became the leading cause of death for men aged 25-44, but when the ground-breaking combination therapy was introduced in 1996, its impact was immediate. 

Narrated by Audrey Brown
Written and produced by Richard Fenton-Smith
Sound mix by Tom Brignell

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