Before HIV, Version 0.3.11
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Before HIV: Homosex and Venereal Disease, c.1939-1984
IRAS ID
129406
Contact name
Richard A. McKay
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Cambridge
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
609/M/C/1550, University of Cambridge Insurance
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
From the 1930s onward, gay men, other men who had sex with men (MSM), and trans people increasingly became groups of interest for public-health efforts to control sexually transmitted infections (STIs) – or in the language of the time, venereal disease (VD). Yet very little is known about how these individuals experienced sexual health and illness.
‘Before HIV’, a Wellcome Trust-funded research project, investigates this pre-AIDS history of sexual health and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among gay men, other MSM, and trans people, from the late 1930s to the early 1980s, in England, Canada, and the United States. It will trace the emergence of concerns that homosexual contact spread VD, and combine the stories of these individuals with those of health workers. The project aims to change our understanding of the early responses to HIV/AIDS in North America and England by placing the epidemic at the end of several decades of both increased VD transmission and community-based efforts to improve sexual health. With its focus on the experiences of gay men, other MSM, and trans people, the research also aims to reintroduce an important, but frequently marginalised, group of individuals to this history. Since this group bears a disproportionate burden of STIs in the present day, the research has the potential to bring greater understanding to a longstanding contemporary public-health challenge.
This is a mixed methods qualitative historical study, incorporating questionnaire completion, focus group discussions, oral history interviews, archival data collection and analysis, and retrospective review of de-identified patient records.
REC name
London - City & East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/0572
Date of REC Opinion
24 May 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion