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ABC News
ABC News
Health

AIDS hospice founder Sister Annie Laurie on why she refused to let the sick die alone

Sister Annie Laurie says she was compelled to help those suffering from AIDS in the 1980s. (Supplied: The University of Newcastle)

When hysteria about AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) reached Australian shores in the early 1980s, Sister Annie Laurie decided she would not sit idly by and watch people die alone.

Newspapers referred to AIDS as "the killer plague" or "the gay plague" with the first, widely published case reported in Australia in 1983, but the first death from the disease is thought to have happened in 1981.

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