U.K. - How Edinburgh became the Aids capital of Europe

[S.J.B.]

How Edinburgh became the Aids capital of Europe
Steven Brocklehurst
BBC
December 1st, 2019

In the mid-1980s Edinburgh became known as the Aids capital of Europe. A new deadly disease, cheap heroin and the hardline attitudes of the authorities were the ingredients for a public health disaster.

The disease had first surfaced in the US where it became stigmatised as the gay "plague" because it was mainly affecting homosexual men.

But in Edinburgh it was a different group whose health was causing concern - a new generation of intravenous drug users.

Heroin had hit Scotland's capital hard and fast in the early 1980s, with the number of addicts rocketing from a few dozen to thousands.

New cheap supplies of the drug from Afghanistan and Iran led to a massive increase in injecting drug use, especially on Edinburgh's housing schemes such as Muirhouse and Pilton.

Read the full story here.

 

[Quere]

It’s chilling reading about what it was like back then, I’m so grateful I live in a time where I have easy access to clean needles/syringes and methadone maintenance. I suppose I would probably be dead had I lived back then.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Yes. This sort of stuff makes you realise just how valuable resources like Bluelight and needle exchanges are. I myself was at that time injecting all sorts of shit using needles shared by God knows how many people simply because the knowledge and support wasnt available. Luckily, I 'only' contracted hepatitis, but it could have been much worse...