ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the context in which obtaining and disseminating reliable, up-to-date information in an accessible form emerged as a key issue among AIDS activists and describes and analyses the development of treatment information networks in the wider context of treatment activism, first in the US and subsequently in Britain. The author draws on personal experience and research on both sides of the Atlantic and on recently conducted interviews with key players in establishing and running AIDS information networks in Britain (Edward King, Mark Harrington, Peter Scott and Keith Alcorn). The struggle for a measure of control over information about AIDS and HIV is part of a wider strategy to secure health for individuals, groups and communities which involves a direct challenge to the, at best, benevolent paternalist attitudes of the medical, pharmaceutical and public health establishments and to widespread prejudicial attitudes and behaviours which undermine people’s health.
HOW TO MAKE TREATMENT CHOICES IN AN EPIDEMIC
