Left to right: 'And the Band played on', 1987 [Library shelfmark: PB5.212.461/1], 'AIDS don't die of ignorance', 1986 [Library shelfmark: GHA.1/10].
One of the health scares of the 1980s was AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), caused by the HIV virus.
The Library collections offer an extensive resource to research HIV and AIDs, including medical journals with papers about the disease, newspaper reports, public information documents and books.
The British government knew little about the HIV and AIDS at the start of the 1980s but with increasing numbers of reported cases of AIDS as the decade progressed, it was compelled to take action.
In 1986 the Department of Health and Social Security issued a leaflet with the strapline 'Don't Die of Ignorance' which accompanied a television campaign. The leaflet is available in the Library collections and contains practical advice about how to avoid contracting AIDS.
An initial misconception about AIDS was that it could only be contracted by homosexual activity. Randy Shilts, an American journalist wrote 'And the Band played on: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic' in 1987, to draw attention to the treatment of gay communities as governments took action to curb the spread of the disease.
For more about the Library's governmental collections, you can visit our official publications pages..
To read more about AIDS in the 1980s, see also:
For more essays and videos about the 1980s, visit our retrospective 'Back to the future: 1979-1989' website.