And the Band Played On...
An interesting read about Patient Zero thought to be the one that brought the AIDS epidemic to America. But that was debunked in 2016. See this:
http://www.virology.ws/2016/11/16/dugas-was-not-aids-patient-zero/
The problem with containment then is that GRIDS was poorly understood and hadn't appeared outside the gay community. So in essence, they could have rounded up every queer in San Francisco and stuck them on Alcatraz or something, but it was already too late and GRIDS was fagging it's way throughout the country.
The progress research has made in fighting RNA viruses is incredible. Perhaps a vaccine in the future and only anti-vaxxers will get AIDS.