Insight: How to Survive a Plague by David France

From a social perspective, I had a bit of knowledge of AIDS before I undertook a phenomenological study of the same topic for my undergraduate thesis. Part of that understanding is the stigma and discrimination underlying the difficulties people living with AIDS (PLWAs) face, and the costs it would take to get medicine and maintain a healthy lifestyle and relationship with relatives and friends. This book, How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS by David France (2016), however, filled in the historical gap I needed to know.

I learned that HIV/AIDS was initially called “gay cancer” at a time in 1981 when it first surfaced among the gay community in New York, USA. The battle with AIDS before even considering its scientific scores started with gay oppressed by heterosexuals and barred from immediate action, notably research undertakings. HIV is not selective—spreading across the globe killing people—but it initially proved to be a “gays’ predicament” so it seemed to the majority, including people in the government and medical institutions.

It took 14 years to come up with protease inhibitors (drugs) that suppress HIV. Before that, there were AZT, the first massed-produced FDA-approved drug for HIV that proved to be a commercial fraud, and others with little to limited weeks of effectivity. In New York alone, it took 100,000 deaths before protease inhibitors, which involve combination drugs, become commercially available for everyone who needs it at a cost. Nonetheless, the activism started by a few people leading to organizations and activists coming together connecting the world ended up with a drug that not necessarily eradicate HIV out of one’s body, but put it to sleep, thereby ending the plague in 1996.

Personally, reading about the HIV/AIDS conquest was exhausting. David France’s narrative leads to ‘discovering’ tales before hope fades as trial results emerge. Somewhere in the middle of the book, hope resurfaces again then the “sad” narrative of failing trials, dead people, homophobic leaders, and many depressing details resurface. The battle for equality and human rights is a long way to go. HIV is just a speck of the indifferences.

We live for certain causes. This book proves that differences, notably religious beliefs, and sexual preferences, can undermine a major health concern. The discovery of HIV drugs, as discussed in this book, shows that revolution and activism can move mountains and pressure brains to action.