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During the times when HIV and AIDS were unknown to humanity, select social groups in the Australian city of Darlinghurst were leading a rather reckless lifestyle. Sexually transmitted diseases were a norm, and specialized clinics always had patients to work with. However, when people started to get infected with a new, previously unidentified virus, people started worrying, and the local government had to take measures to prevent the said virus from spreading. This essay is going to take a look at the 2007 film Rampant: How a City Stopped a Plague directed by Victoria Midwinter-Pitt, and discuss the depicted Australian method of fighting HIV.
According to the movie, the key to success was the cooperation between activists with Minister for Health Neal Blewett and his Senior Advisor Bill Bowtell, who is an openly gay man. The AIDS prevention plan went into full force by 1987, six years after the first reports about the disease came in. The method involved advertising campaigns to encourage protected sexual contacts, programs to exchange needles, funding for cooperatives of sex workers, and raising public awareness despite the number of people opposing it. The film provides proof that the plan worked: the general HIV incidence became ten times lower compared to that of the USAs, with the death toll being more than seven times lower than predicted (Rampant: How a City Stopped a Plague). It would seem that the Australians took a more drastic approach with more active measures to prevent the disease, which is the major difference from the way the US dealt with it. Unfortunately, the film does not elaborate on why exactly the shown method was successful, only alluding to the political climate and assuming the viewers already know what happened.
It is possible to assume that the reason the Australian preventive measures were more successful than in the USA was the cooperation of activists and the government. Compared to the Australian approach, travel restrictions, medical treatments, and public health policies, the US initially introduced, appeared to be less effective. Another difference was a firm stance taken by the Australians against the opposition that preached morality, disregarding public health.
Work Cited
Rampant: How a City Stopped a Plague. Directed by Victoria Midwinter-Pitt, Chapman Pictures Pty Ltd, 2007.
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