The nurse was encouraged that the young woman wanted to talk about anything. “Carangi, G.” had been severely depressed and mostly uncommunicative during her stay. She had first been admitted to the medical wing for treatment of pneumonia and low white-blood-cell count. When blood tests revealed that she was HIV-positive, she was placed in an isolation ward and treated gingerly, if at all, by hospital personnel largely uninformed about the disease. Even though it was already the summer of 1986 and health care workers were supposed to know better, unfamiliarity was still breeding contempt. Some nurses and orderlies were donning rubber gloves or “space suits” before entering her room, and they were wiping down her phone every time she used it, which only exacerbated her depression and suicidal feelings.