How to Survive a Plague

Epoch-making. . . Brilliantly told. Informative, entertaining, suspenseful, moving and personal. ' Edmund White

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. Around the globe, the 15. 8 million people taking anti-AIDS drugs today are alive thanks to their efforts. 
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. 
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 practiced worldwide.