Frontline

The Age of AIDS: Part 1 (2006x9)

Air date: May 30, 2006

After a quarter-century of political denial and social stigma, of stunning scientific breakthroughs, bitter policy battles and inadequate prevention campaigns, HIV/AIDS continues to spread rapidly throughout much of the world. Through interviews with AIDS researchers, world leaders, activists, and patients, FRONTLINE investigates the science, politics, and human cost of this fateful disease and asks: What are the lessons of the past, and what can be done to stop AIDS? In Part 1, ?The Age of AIDS? traces the pandemic over the past 25 years, beginning with the virus's eary cases. Included: political denial; social stigma; the contamination of blood supplies; and the virus's personal toll. Dr. Jim Curran, who headed the CDC's AIDS initiative in the1980s, recounts the story of a Florida family whose house was burned down because their children were hemophiliacs with AIDS. Also: the impact of the deaths of Rock Hudson and Ryan White.