ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evolution of HIV/AIDS since it appeared as a global public health concern. Since it appeared in the early 1980s, HIV/AIDS has been shown to have a critical impact on society, and there has been an evolution in society's response. The chapter presents decade-by-decade some of the varied societal and institutional responses to the disease. After a brief historical review, it deals with the appearance of the disease, and stigmas and the responses of the 1980s. One of the challenges that many of advice centers had to deal with was stigma that was placed on homosexuals by broad segments of society. The 1990s were the second decade of the HIV/AIDS. One of the crucial questions during this period was why the infection rate in minority communities was as large as it was. In May 2001, the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria was established in Belgium as an independent legal entity registered under Swiss law.
