Don’t Die of Ignorance: how an establishment figure helped avert the UK’s HIV crisis

During the 1980s AIDS crisis, misinformation and hysteria were rife. But Lord Fowler realised the only way to combat the disease was through prevention – even if that meant going against the advice of Number 10

Lord Fowler in the Speakers’ office remembers how Margret Thatcher warned he was spending too much time on the HIV outbreak and urged him not to become “minister for Aids”. Credit: Andrew Crowley

By Anne Gulland