When AIDS Began

San Francisco and the Making of an Epidemic

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by Michelle Cochrane

Routledge

Due/Published December 2003, 336 pages, paper

ISBN 0415924308

In When AIDS Began, Michelle Cochrane examines the roots of this epidemic, constructs the making of the disease, and expels many of the misconceptions that surround it. By examining the early outbreaks in San Francisco, she unfolds the creation of this disease in one geographic location and then traces how and why major claims about the transmission of HIV were made, extrapolated and then disseminated around the world .

Through her analysis and research, Cochrane dispels the myths of AIDS by interviewing patients, public health officials, workers and gaining access to medical charts and documents from the San Francisco Public Health Department. She comes to question some of the orthodoxies of AIDS: primarily the early assertion that it is a gay disease spread by sexual contact. She suggests that in the tracking of the disease, sexual transmission is more often assumed rather than empirically documented. Instead, she suggests that IV drug use and socio-economic status may have played a much greater than acknowledged role among the risk factors for those who were infected.

Contents

List of Tables and Illustrations
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Preface

Chapter I: The Sociology of Knowledge on HIV and AIDS
Chapter II: The Medicalization of Gay Desire in San Francisco (1974-1983)
Chapter III: The Early Demographics of AIDS: Case Studies of The First Nine Gay Male AIDS Cases in San Francisco
Chapter IV: More Gay Men Reported With AIDS in San Francisco: 15 Case Studies from 1981
Chapter V: The Mechanics of AIDS Surveillance: An Historical Critique of The Demography of Risk
Chapter VI: AIDS Surveillance Statistics: Changing The Subjects and Object of Study
Chapter VII: Conclusion

Notes
Works Cited
Index