AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) first crept into the world's consciousness in the early 1980s as the death toll started mounting. And yet, initially the seemingly scattered and random deaths were no indication of the millions the disease claims to this day. At its onset, the medical community was stunned and unprepared, fearing they had the makings of a modern plague, a virus of which they knew little and for which they had no cure. AIDS is a disease transferred through the exchange of bodily fluids, and it is commonly, though not exclusively, sexually transmitted or introduced through a blood transfusion. In light of such a pathology, experts predicted that the rate of transmission would skyrocket worldwide. Their fears proved true.

In the wake of growing  fears, activists and medical professionals raced not only to dispel misconceptions about the disease, but to disseminate accurate information...