An unknown disease… highly contagious… its cause unknown… its victims shunned… the number of cases and deaths rising. A description of the AIDS epidemic but one that also fits virtually every major epidemic that Australia has experienced over the last 200 years. Every virulent outbreak of infectious disease to hit Australia carried with it not one but two epidemics – firstly, the physical manifestation of the disease itself in cases and deaths, and secondly, the way we reacted and responded: denial at first, followed by apprehension, fear, hysteria and panic, and always showing little confidence in the government’s ability to...