population at risk from HIV and AIDS in Africa and Asia

The WHO set as a priority target for prevention that, by the year 2000, the whole population at risk from HIV and AIDS in Africa and Asia should live in communities where condoms were both readily available and affordable.¹¹¹

In the UK, the Department of Health made it an offence to sell, advertise or supply HIV antibody testing kits to the public.¹¹²

During 1992, a major UK newspaper ran a series of articles challenging the orthodox view that HIV alone causes AIDS.¹¹³

"But suppose the researchers are looking in the wrong place. Suppose HIV doesn't equal AIDS. Then we will have witnessed the biggest medical and scientific blunder this century."The Sunday Times journalist Neville Hodgkinson¹¹⁴

Many other British newspapers joined the heated debate with journalists, researchers, activists and organisations expressing their opinions about the cause of AIDS.¹¹⁵

"'But what if HIV does cause AIDS? What effect will such articles have on attempts to inform the public on safe sex, or on the people who are suffering from AIDS and taking anti-HIV drugs?"¹¹⁶

Tennis star Arthur Ashe announced that he had been infected with HIV as a result of a blood transfusion in 1983.¹¹⁷

Fearful that it was discouraging tourists, a new government in Thailand threatened to scale down the country's extensive AIDS awareness campaign, which had begun in 1991 and won international acclaim. However, the government lost power within weeks and the campaign was restored.¹¹⁸

The FDA approved the use of ddC in combination with AZT for adult patients with advanced HIV infection who were continuing to show signs of clinical or immunological deterioration. This was the first successful use of combination drug therapy for the treatment of AIDS