ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the history of the epidemic and the extensive responses which included civil society, especially activists; public health officials, governments; national and international non-governmental organisations; and international funders. Many countries with concentrated epidemics have already seen a ‘unique’ kind of scaling-up and scaling-down. The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) caused by the Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus is the disease that tested global health responses and subsequently framed and drove them from 1981 up to about 2014. AIDS was specifically mentioned in one of the Millennium Development Goals, but it is only a sub-clause in the Sustainable Development Goals. The Cameron government released a plan in late 2015 to cut the proportion of aid money spent by the Department for International Development from 86 per cent to 70 per cent. In March 2017, about 50 governments are attending the hastily convened She Decides conference in Brussels on Thursday, with early pledges closing in on $100m.
