david france how to survive a plague book

Ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large, and confronted with shame and hatred, this small group of men and women chose to fight for their right to live by educating themselves and demanding to become full partners in the race for effective treatments. France’s book, acclaimed as a “masterpiece of intimate storytelling with moral purpose” by National Book Award winner Andrew Solomon, is based on France’s seminal Oscar-nominated documentary How to Survive a Plague.įrance tells the riveting story of the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. Weaving together the stories of dozens of individuals, this is an insider's account of a pivotal moment in our history and one that changed the way that medical science is practised worldwide.Please join us at Roosevelt House for a special evening marking the publication of How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS, by David France, the definitive history of the successful battle to halt the AIDS epidemic. 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. Around the globe, the 15.8 million people taking anti-AIDS drugs today are alive thanks to their efforts. How to Survive a Plague by David France is 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.

What once seemed an unbeatable plague has become a manageable condition and yet around the world millions of people still die from AIDS every year, without access to the unaffordable drug care that could save them.

Some had been just breaths away from their own deaths… So dramatic was their resurrection that stupefied doctors began calling it the Lazarus effect. Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2017 Since that stunning breakthrough in 1996, the new treatments had reached millions of people worldwide, returning to them the promise of a near-normal life-span.

David france how to survive a plague book