In 1995, the New York Times reported that complications from AIDS were the leading cause of death for adults aged 25-44 in the US. Although Aotearoa still had relatively low rates of around 100 cases per year, public perception of HIV and AIDS had shifted.

AIDS could no longer be reduced to a ‘gay disease’ or ‘a disease of the Hs’ (homosexuals, heroin users, haemophiliacs, and Haitians). It could affect anyone.

Finding effective treatment was a race against the clock, a battle that the world needed to be united in fighting.

Thanks for listening to Our Forgotten Epidemic, a show about Aotearoa New Zealand’s response to HIV and AIDS, and some of the many brave individuals who changed the course of history.

Burnett Foundation Aotearoa is proud to be able to tell part of this important story from the perspectives of some truly remarkable people. And we want to acknowledge there’s so much more than we can tell in this short series. 

• Our Forgotten Epidemic was produced by Wavelength Creative, in collaboration with Burnett Foundation Aotearoa.
• Written and researched by Alyssa Partington, Matt Bain and Dr Jason Myers.
• Music composed by Alex Cox | alexcoxmusic.com
• Hosted and narrated by Dr Jason Myers.
• Many of the voices you’ve heard in this episode are from a series of interviews conducted by Dr Cheryl Ware in 2019 for the New Zealand AIDS Foundation Oral History Project.
• Many thanks to Pride NZ for allowing us to use portions of an interview with Bruce Kilmister. You can listen to this interview in full, alongside many others, at PrideNZ.com
• Special thanks to our test listeners including staff living with HIV at Burnett Foundation Aotearoa, Gareth Watkins, the Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand and PrideNZ.com
• Special thanks also goes to Peter Davis for his excellent book, Intimate Details and Vital Statistics: AIDS, Sexuality and the Social Order in New Zealand.