No Magic Bullet

Book excerpt: The epidemic of AIDS and herpes virus has called into question not only the ability of the medical profession to treat venereal disease but also its willingness to do so. No Magic Bullet, a perceptive analysis of the treatment of venereal diseases since the 1880s, places these questions in critical historical perspective. Beginning with Victorian hysteria about syphilis and continuing to contemporary treatment of AIDS, Allan Brandt recounts the various medical, military, and public health responses to venereal diseases that have arisen over the years. Brandt demonstrates that Americans' tendency to view sexually transmitted disease as both a punishment for sexual misconduct and an index of social decay has seriously impeded efforts to develop "magic bullets," the miracle drugs that would effectively halt the spread of infection. For this 35th Anniversary Edition, Brandt reflects on recent scholarship, the persistence of sexually transmitted diseases, and the trajectory of the HIV epidemic, as they have informed contemporary conceptions of biomedicine and global health.