World AIDS Day

As today is World Aids Day, I’d like to write about it.

I have never known a world without HIV and AIDS. I was born in early 1983, shortly after AIDS was given its name. Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; an epidemic that baffled the medical community.

As a child of the 1980’s, I was too young to understand what it was, but I remember hearing about it on the TV and in the newspaper. When I became a pre-teen, we learned about it in our health classes, but even back then, so much was still unknown. As a kid, all I can really remember is that it is incurable. That was reiterated over and over to us.

In 1993, a movie came out called “And The Band Played On.” To this day, it remains one of my favorite movies of all time. It was so well done and really gave a human face to an epidemic that has suffered much prejudice. This movie prompted me to do more research into the AIDS epidemic, so I could not only avoid contracting it, but so that I could have a better understanding of the HIV virus itself.

In the early days, it was referred to as the gay cancer, and subsequently, it got little attention when it needed it the most.  It is my personal belief that, had the US government acknowledged that it wasn’t just affecting the gay community, but rather, the population as a whole, perhaps it would not have spread as quickly.

In 1984, it was announced that HIV was the cause of AIDS. I was one year old, sitting in my mother’s lap, when it was announced on the TV. Of course, I don’t remember it, but I’ve been told about it. In 1985, a test was set up to screen blood supplies and in 1987, AZT, the first of what would become many treatment drugs was approved to treat AIDS. By the late 90’s, several combination antiretroviral drugs were available. 

Hopefully, we will continue to learn more about this virus and perhaps one day, there will be a cure. But until then, we should be as understanding as possible.