A leaflet about AIDS was delivered to every

At the beginning of January the UK Secretary of State for Social Services, Norman Fowler, visited San Francisco, and in a widely publicised visit shook hands with an AIDS patient. It was suggested that Princess Diana should follow his example, which she did later in the year.^{1 2}

A leaflet about AIDS was delivered to every household in the UK, and the British Government also launched a major advertising campaign with the slogan "AIDS: Don't Die of Ignorance", and with the secondary advice:^{3 4}

The ‘tombstone’ AIDS advert that was aired in 1987 in the UK.

"Anyone can get it, gay or straight, male or female. Already 30,000 people are infected." ⁵

In February there was a general media "AIDS week", when there were numerous TV and radio programs on AIDS in the UK.⁶ Many other countries also had education campaigns.

By this time, the World Health Organisation had been notified of 43,880 cases of AIDS in 91 countries.⁷

The first HIV case was officially recorded in the Soviet Union, and a massive HIV testing programme was conducted.⁸

Meanwhile in San Francisco, gay rights activist Cleve Jones made the first panel for the AIDS Memorial Quilt in memory of his friend Marvin Feldman.⁹

"The Names project is a campaign to provide memorials to those lives by creating a huge quilt made up of individual panels, each 3 by 6 feet, that have been made by families friends and co-workers of those who died. Each of the nearly 3000 panels, which have come from all over the country, bears the name of a victim of acquired immune deficiency."¹⁰

In March the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved AZT as the first antiretroviral drug to be used as a treatment for AIDS.¹¹

Around the same time the organisation ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) was founded. ACT UP was committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis, and their demands included better access to drugs as well as cheaper prices, public education about AIDS and the prohibition of AIDS-related discrimination. On 24th March they held their first mass demonstration on Wall Street.¹²