Atheist Age

Rampant; How a city stopped a plague

The story of AIDS in Australia and the policy that saved us from a “plague”. Tragically, the drug free movement and the religious fundamentalism that sustains this movement, now places even more lives than the present 10,000 daily at risk.

You be the judge.

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From ABC Television;

The first diagnosis of AIDS in Australia was made at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney’s Darlinghurst in November 1982. The patient was a 27-year-old gay New Yorker visiting Sydney. The doctors did not know what caused the disease or how it was spread and they discharged the man back into the promiscuous streets of 1980′s gay Sydney.

Rampant is the story of AIDS in Australia, and how our response to the disease – so radically different to that in the USA and other countries with conservative governments – made us world leaders in controlling the virus, which had the potential to become a plague.

Drawing in a cast of characters from Federal Ministers to nuns to sex workers, Australia forged a radical path in its approach to the disease, tapping into the networks of junkies, prostitutes and practising gay men who were the most susceptible to infection.

Led by the Minister for Health under the Hawke government, Neal Blewett, Australia undertook several unprecedented and pragmatic steps: it introduced a needle exchange program for intravenous drug users, encouraged open discussion of safe sex, and created the famous Grim Reaper advertising campaign.

There was fierce opposition from the religious right, but 25 years after the initial AIDS outbreak, Australia’s decision to accept human nature in policy making has saved thousands of lives – especially when compared to the USA where ‘morality’ has outweighed practicality in dealing with the illness.

Exclusive interviews with journalist and AIDS activist Ita Buttrose, former politicians Neal Blewett and Bill Bowtell, the Reverend Fred Nile, St. Vincent’s Hospital doctors and the founding member of the Australian Prostitutes Collective bring 1980s Sydney at the height of AIDS hysteria to life.

Rampant is an epic drama encompassing death, plague, love, loss, grief – and survival.

Tags: Church/State, Debate, Drug War, Education, Fundamentalism, Medico-legal, Morality, Politics, Research, Science, Video