Ann Giudici Fettner papers

1983-1987

Ann Giudici Fettner is a medical journalist who reported on the AIDS crisis in the United States and Africa. She is the author of the book The Truth About AIDS: Evolution of an Epidemic, and was a scientific correspondent for the New York Native. The papers consist of correspondence; notes and manuscripts; transcripts of interviews; and personal miscellany such as clippings, press releases, and book reviews. Correspondence largely concerns Fettner's book and her articles for the New York Native, and includes responses from the scientific and medical communities, from people with AIDS, and from the gay community at large. Letters include anecdotal descriptions of alternative therapies and folk remedies, as well as scientific research and discussions on early clinical trials. Many writers evince frustration with the mainstream media for its marginalization of AIDS as a "gay disease," and the slow or inadequate response from the New York City Department of Health, NIH, WHO, and other national and global health authorities. A small quantity of notes and letters pertain to the spread of the disease in Zaire. Correspondents include Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Benjamin Bradlee, and Robert Gallo. Notes and manuscripts pertain to books, articles, and interviews by Fettner. Transcripts are from interviews with members of the medical community documenting their early clinical experience with AIDS and related diseases like Kaposi's sarcoma, Burkitt's lymphoma, and Pneumocystis pneumonia, and their personal experiences with AIDS patients. Other interviews are with members of the gay community, including AIDS activist and playwright Larry Kramer