During these times we saw the best and worst of nursing and health care. In an Oral History project: "The AIDS Epidemic in San Francisco: The Response of the Nursing Profession, 1981-1984 [6, 7] " we hear from nurses involved that some nursing and medical staff held the same fears and prejudices that were so widespread in the broader community. They would refuse to care for the AIDS patients and stigmatise them along with the other so-called "4H patients -Homosexuals, Haitians, Hemophiliacs and Heroin users" [8] .