Resources

Introduction

This lesson begins with an introduction to the environmental and social factors that have shaped the emergence of infectious diseases in the past. In recent decades, there has been renewed public and official concern about infectious disease as a major public health threat. As A.J. McMichael notes, public anxiety has been particularly evident within the media-driven culture of the United States, as American authors have warned of coming plagues and the menace of emerging infections. A global, ecological view of emerging diseases helps place the appearance of AIDS and other diseases within a broader context. By closely analyzing the process of emergence, we can identify a variety of social and environmental influences involved in the spread of “new” infectious diseases like AIDS. Historians Elizabeth Fee, Nancy Krieger, and Victoria A. Harden illustrate how perhaps more than any other disease, AIDS offers a complex and vivid example of the ways in which people create multiple, contested explanations of health and illness. In recounting early experiences with the disease, Harden maintains that AIDS history can also tell us a great deal about ourselves. Writing at a point in time when AIDS was only a decade old, Fee and Krieger reveal how history can play an important part in shaping our understanding of emerging diseases, as well as collective social, cultural, and political reactions to diseases more broadly. Students are asked to analyze an example of one particularly poignant response to AIDS, a document that became known as “The Denver Principles,” which emerged from the National Association of People With AIDS Conference in 1983. Students should read each of the primary and secondary sources listed below before the lesson. Discussion questions may be provided to students in advance.