AIDS Doctors: Voices from the Epidemic

by Ronald Bayer, Gerald M. Oppenheimer

Today, AIDS has been indelibly etched in our consciousness. Yet it was less than twenty years ago that doctors confronted a sudden avalanche of strange, inexplicable, seemingly untreatable conditions that signaled the arrival of a devastating new disease. Bewildered, unprepared, and pushed to the limit of their diagnostic abilities, a select group of courageous physicians nevertheless persevered. This unique collective memoir tells their story.
Based on interviews with nearly eighty doctors whose lives and careers have centered on the AIDS epidemic from the early 1980s to the present, this candid, emotionally textured account details the palpable anxiety in the medical profession as it experienced a rapid succession of cases for which there was no clinical history. The physicians interviewed chronicle the roller coaster experiences of hope and despair, as they applied newly developed, often unsuccessful therapies. Yet these physicians who chose to embrace the challenge confronted more than just the sense of therapeutic helplessness in dealing with a disease they could not conquer. They also faced the tough choices inherent in treating a controversial, sexually and intravenously transmitted illness as many colleagues simply walked away. Many describe being gripped by a sense of by the moral imperative to treat the disempowered and despised. Nearly all describe a common purpose, an esprit de corps that bound them
together in a terrible yet exhilarating war against an invisible enemy.
This extraordinary oral history forms a landmark effort in the understanding of the AIDS crisis. Carefully collected and eloquently told, the doctors' narratives reveal the tenacity and unquenchable optimism that has paved the way for taming a 20th-century plague.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Medicine, Science, Gay, Oral History

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1900

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent, fascinating, one quibble: you will only learn about doctors who treated upper and middle-class white gay men. Most of the contributors didn't take Medicaid, and so we're largely left without the drug addicts and the poor people.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. Very interesting, after "And the Band Played On." There was a lot of overlap between the two books in terms of the people interviewed and I got a broader feel of the people at the front line of the epidemic.

Except for the part where you don't get a feel for the real human costs of AIDS. There is no personalization of the patients. Instead it's all doctors all the time. They come off as these great martyrs, which is fine because there was no prestige in the early years of this disease and they took it up because they recognized its importance and the urgency to give treatment. But the faces of the victims get lost in the shuffle.

There's also the issue of the editors/writers capitalizing black (as in African-American). Very jarring, every time.

Solid work and I'm glad that this infomation was gathered for posterity. But I think I'll return to the nameless faceless masses for my next go 'round.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book documenting the experiences of those doctors who first encountered AIDS in their clinical practice and experienced the twists and turns of the epidemic's evolution in the 1980s and 1990s. Oral history is a great medium for this topic and the authors use it masterfully. It's also a great read - though it would be a mistake to say it reads like a novel it is certainly compelling.

[stephanie]

the first half was sooo good, then i just lost interest. thanks adhd! hahah