“the greatest misery of sickness is solitude; when the infectiousness of the disease deters them who should assist from coming.”1

So wrote John Donne in 1627 when he thought he was dying. Although the infectious diseases of his time were bubonic plague, leprosy, and syphilis rather than AIDS, the hysteria and misinformation surrounding them are all too familiar.

Some 20 000 people in Britain are known to be HIV positive, with many others unaware of their HIV status. On average every general practitioner may therefore expect to have one HIV positive patient on his or her list. Although most HIV positive patients currently live in large cities (particularly Edinburgh and London), as more people become infected more practices will have …