The healthcare profession should have begun study on the disease no matter who was affected, and that is a black mark for the American healthcare population and their ignorance and ignoring of this disease.
Don Francis is the "hero" of the film, and he is hard not to like because he is dedicated, he knows right from wrong, and he tries to get people to act respectably and with decency, when many of them are self-serving and arrogant. He also has a sense of morality and a conscience, which help him do the right thing and make him more likeable. You can feel his frustration with the system and with the opposition to study, and to the working conditions and lack of funding, too. He is made to be likeable, of course, but he is caring and concerned, something that cannot be said for many of the other characters. Bill Kraus is another important character, because the audience comes to care about him, despite his lifestyle, and it is hard to see him die by the end of the film.
Of course, one of the villains of the film is Dr. Gallo, played by Alan Alda, who disagrees with just about every aspect of study, and is more concerned about getting credit for discovering the disease, rather than cooperating with other governments to create a valid and relevant study. He is arrogant, manipulative, and utterly without morals, it seems, and extremely competitive, too. He wants to discover the disease...
AIDS isn't the only new disease to come along in the 20th century, and there will certainly be many more. The AIDS crisis was totally mishandled because of emotional and lifestyle issues, and if that happened again, a healthcare crisis could occur. The healthcare community has to learn from this crisis, and learn to be more open to study, developing cures, and caring for the ill, no matter who they are or what they do in their private lives.
Of course, new emerging diseases should be treated as health issues, the origin of the disease has nothing to do with the potential for harm, and it should not influence how people are treated, as well. AIDS shows that even a "gay" disease can affect all members of a community, especially when all aspects of the disease are not understood. Taking care of a person with a disease should have nothing to do with "origins" or anything else; it should simply be a matter of giving the best possible health care to the person, while attempting to find a cure for the problem.
References
And the Band Played on. Dir. Roger Spottiswoode. Perf. Ian McKellan, Alan Alda, Matthew Modine, Home Box Office Film, 1993.
