Mosaic Examines History Of AIDS As Issue Of National, International Security

Mosaic: How HIV became a matter of international security
“…AIDS became the first epidemic in modern history to morph beyond a topic of public health into an issue of national and even international security. Without collaboration between countries, between scientists and military personnel, between industry and government, the disease would have claimed more than the 35 million lives it has to date. … By the early 1980s, diseases that ravaged the human population seemed like they might become a thing of the past. Smallpox had been eradicated worldwide by 1980; vaccination campaigns during the 1960s and 70s meant that diseases like polio, mumps, and measles affected far fewer people. ‘People were talking about conquering infectious disease once and for all,’ says Joshua Michaud, the associate director of global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. … But when AIDS was discovered in 1981, that illusion was shattered. ‘We had a lot of magic bullets, we had technical fixes to everything. Then HIV happened,’ Michaud says…” (Ossola, 5/16).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

KFF Headquarters: 185 Berry St., Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94107 | Phone 650-854-9400
Washington Offices and Barbara Jordan Conference Center: 1330 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005 | Phone 202-347-5270

www.kff.org | Email Alerts: kff.org/email | facebook.com/KFF | twitter.com/kff

The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news, KFF is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California.