How to Survive a Plague tells the story of the trials and triumphs of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). AIDS remains the most deadly pandemic since the 1918 outbreak of the H1N1 “Spanish” flu, which killed up to 5 percent of the world’s population. It was, as Larry Kramer shouts out during an argument with fellow activists, a modern plague. As we progress in time, a counter records the number of worldwide AIDS-related deaths from year to year: The documentary covers the period from 1987-1995.

While I certainly intend to read the book, my nightstand is currently overflowing with volumes. In the meantime, I opted to watch France’s documentary by the same title, which preceded the book by four years and inspired its publication.

We witness the founding of ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group), the rise of an underground drug market in opposition to the use of the prohibitively expensive (and sometimes toxic) early AIDS drug AZT, and the suspenseful - and often heartbreaking - march toward a lifesaving medical breakthrough.Įxpansive yet richly detailed, this is an insider's account of a pivotal moment in the history of American civil rights - and one that changed the way that medical science is practiced worldwide.In November 2016, Knopf published David France’s How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS. Not since the publication of Randy Shilts's now classic And the Band Played On in 1987 has a book sought to measure the AIDS plague in such brutally human, intimate, and soaring terms.ĭavid France, a chronicler of AIDS from the earliest days, uses his unparalleled access to the community to illuminate the lives of dozens of extraordinary characters, including the closeted Wall Street trader-turned-activist the high school dropout who found purpose battling pharmaceutical giants in New York the South African physician who helped establish the first officially recognized buyers' club at the height of the epidemic and the public relations executive fighting to save his own life for the sake of his young daughter. Around the globe, the 15.8 million people taking anti-AIDS drugs today are alive thanks to their efforts. The riveting, powerful and profoundly moving story of the AIDS epidemic and the grass-roots movement of activists, many of them facing their own life-or-death struggles, who grabbed the reins of scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease.

Informative, entertaining, suspenseful, moving, and personal.' Edmund White

How to survive a plague by david france