FRONTLINE: THE AGE OF AIDS: PART 2 (TV)
Summary
One in this documentary series. This program, the second in a two-part series, explores the origins and history of HIV/AIDS. In the 1980s, many impoverished central Africans traveled south to still-divided Johannesburg for mining jobs, and HIV/AIDS spread yet further in the crowded hostels, largely via sex workers. The disease was "not a concern" to many Africans and to the government, however, as they were preoccupied with the end of apartheid and the shifting of political power structures. Gay activists spoke out, as they had done in other countries, though were often met with societal resistance, and hospitals were overrun with new cases, including many infants. Nelson Mandela became president in 1994, but rather than emulating Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, who focused strongly on education and prevention, Mandela delegated the subject to his protégé Thabo Mbeki and rarely mentioned the matter. In the U.S., Bill Clinton vowed to create a special council and allocate significant funds to AIDS research and treatment, though he then created the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy banning gays from serving in the military, which many saw as a betrayal. At the same time, Dr. David Ho discovered that the virus did not, in fact, lie dormant for many years before causing symptoms, but instead frequently duplicated and mutated itself, thus becoming resistant to individual drugs. Patient William W. Dodge IV describes entering a trial in which he received a combination of three drugs and, despite the aggressive side effects, immediately improved to the point where the virus was undetectable in his body.
Ho and his colleagues announced their groundbreaking "triple cocktail" method in 1996, and though AIDS was "no longer a death sentence" to Cleve Jones and many other Americans, those in poorer countries – including minorities in the American South – were still unable to afford the pricey list of effective drugs. In Brazil, however, where the stigma against AIDS patients was still strong, Nair Soares De Brito successfully sued the government for the drugs, making the country the first in the world to declare that its citizens were legally entitled to treatment. Mbeki succeeded Mandela as president in South Africa, but he read the works of widely-discredited Dr. Peter Duesberg and told the African people that HIV did not lead to AIDS, causing further confusion and dissent. AZT was found to successfully block mother-to-child transmissions, but Mbeki banned both AZT and the triple cocktail, claiming that they were too toxic. Numbers of infected American minorities were also on the rise, making up 80% of the 40,000 annual new cases, and though needle exchanges had been proven effective in other countries, Republican politicians blocked the funding on a moral basis, feeling that it condoned illegal drug use, and Clinton agreed that the "country wasn't ready" for such measures.
AIDS was also underplayed in Russia, where it spread rapidly via cheap heroin and sex trade, and China's government similarly fought to hide outbreaks in rural villages. The United Nations Security Council soon addressed the matter, and a 2000 conference in South Africa helped to "put a face on the problem," though Mbeki reiterated his denialist views in a speech at the concert, much to the activists' dismay. Protests in America helped to lower the prices of the triple-cocktail drugs, and economist Jeffrey Sachs devised a plan for purchasing the drugs at cost for a few billion dollars a year for distribution to poor countries, though his idea was rejected on the grounds that many Africans would be unable to keep up with the regimented schedule and storage required for the drugs. In 2002, evangelist Franklin Graham voiced the need for a "Christian response," arguing that the Bible contains many messages about caring for the ill and impoverished, and he and Irish rock star Bono managed to convince even Senator Jesse Helms, known for his firm "moral" stance against AIDS education, to change his position.
President George W. Bush addressed the issue in a State of the Union address and stated that $15 billion would go towards the purchase of drugs, though he chose to ignore Kofi Annan's global fund and instead focused on far fewer countries in Africa and the Caribbean. China, which had largely been in denial about the pandemic, then received a "wake-up call" in the form of the SARS outbreak, and Ho organized a conference about the spread and prevention of disease. Condom use was promoted now not just for the country's famous one-child policy but for AIDS prevention as well, and drug addicts and sex workers in particular were given special education and attention. Patients were given only a "basic version" of the triple cocktail, however, and doctors were disappointed to discover that the virus never truly vanished from the body even with the appearance of a "cure" from the effective drugs.
Ethiopia, already hampered by too few doctors for its many patients, anxiously awaited the arrival of drugs funded by Bush's $15 billion plan, and Bono recalls his own impatience as the strict "guidelines" delayed the arrivals. The American government was also uncomfortable with Uganda's frank approach to education, preferring them to emphasize abstinence over condom use, and Brazil ended up refusing America's money when it was offered only under the condition that efforts to legalize prostitution would cease. Activists in South Africa eventually won the legal right to the drugs originally banned by Mbeki, though by 2004 there were still simply not enough drugs and hospital beds for everyone. De Brito explains that she suffered profound side effects and had to alter her drug regimen several times before finding the appropriate combination, and several doctors agree that they cannot "keep the pace" with a virus that spreads so frequently and mutates so often. Indian activists established an education program for long-range truckers, who often visit sex workers on their travels, and though their efforts have made a significant difference in infection rates, they are unsure if they will continue to receive American funding for their program. Scientists are also working to develop a "microbicide," a gel that kills the virus on contact, though both that and an effective vaccine remain elusive. The interviewees conclude that despite the many developments and hard work, the pandemic remains a serious global problem that affects many kinds of people, including Mandela's own son.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: May 31, 2006 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:56:47
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 103303
- GENRE: Education/Information
- SUBJECT HEADING: Education/Information; Public affairs/Documentaries; HIV/AIDS
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1983-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Michael Sullivan … Executive Producer
- Mark Reynolds … Executive Producer
- David Fanning … Executive Producer
- Robin Parmelee … Coordinating Producer
- Sharon Tiller … Senior Producer
- Greg Barker … Producer, Director, Writer
- Claudia Rizzi … Co-Producer
- Sarah Anthony … Associate Producer
- Steven Dagdigian … Associate Producer
- Nancy Fraser … Field Producer
- Izabella Tabarovsky … Field Producer
- Olga Domracheva … Field Producer
- Marina Pecoraro … Field Producer
- Missy Frederick … On-Air Promotion Producer
- Renata Simone … Series Producer, Writer, Reporter
- Sarah Moughty … Website Coordinating Producer
- Richard Parr … Website Producer
- Kennan Knudson … Website Associate Producer
- Mason Daring … Music by
- Martin Brody … Theme Music by
- Will Lyman … Narrator
- Bill Clinton … Interviewee
- David Ho … Interviewee
- William W. Dodge IV … Interviewee
- Cleve Jones … Interviewee
- Nair Soares De Brito … Interviewee
- Jeffrey Sachs … Interviewee
- Franklin Graham … Interviewee
- Bono (see also: Paul Hewson) … Interviewee
- Anthony S. Fauci … Interviewee
- Kofi Annan
- George W. Bush
- Peter Duesberg
- Jesse Helms
- Nelson Mandela
- Thabo Mbeki
- Yoweri Museveni