HIV/AIDS began as a simian immunodeficiency virus in the jungles of Africa amongst a population of chimpanzees. Most likely, the disease was transmitted to humans via a ‘hunter,’ who killed a simian infected with the disease and came into contact with the SIV strain via butchered meat. Once in human population, the disease targeted specific risks group before branching its infectivity out to potentially the entire human population. Sustained transmission in humans originates from the targeting of these risk groups; first from IV drug users, sexually promiscuous people, or simply those who fail to practice safe usage in either drug usage or sex. Then, the disease infects a blood supply—something which screening has mitigated—and targets those who need blood transfusion, such as hemophiliacs. Global society has been greatly affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, as the emergence of HIV in humans has prompted the return of TB—a disease thought to be nearly eradicated in humans, even in the poorer countries of the world. Now HIV affects human populations in geographic areas stricken with poverty or in a state of political instability; apart from the African nations, Russia has a large population infected with HIV (some 1-5%) due to the emergence of IV drugs (heroin and the ever destructive homebrew of krokodil) after the fall of the USSSR. Furthermore, second-world countries like Russia have become large markets for the dumping of refined heroin (grown from poppy) from nations such as Afghanistan, products which are used to finance war and global terrorism. As such, the emergence of heroin/IV drug culture in Russia has led to a massive outbreak of HIV, and these outbreaks occur in similar fashions all over the world.
In the United States, the HIV/AIDS epidemic became one of the most politicized diseases in the country’s history. Early on, the disease seemingly affected only one societal demographic: gay men. On the outside, the gay community as a whole appeared to be highly frivolous and promiscuous, and the attitudes of certain factions of American conservatives—especially the Moral Majority, headed by Reverends Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson—framed this lifestyle as a justification for the emergence of HIV. As such, society stigmatized the lifestyle of the gay community, and a political backlash against this lifestyle launched an onslaught of legislation which aimed at mitigating the rights and freedoms of the gay community in America. However, more and more evidence appeared that the disease could affect other demographics, such as IV drug users and heterosexual people, as in the Haitian connection. Yet, even with clear cut scientific evidence backing these claims, American politicians still perpetuated the stigmata against the gay community. Eventually, the focus turned to the other demographics as well. Along with this focus shift, a drug—AZT—emerged, one which seemed to treat the disease and mitigate its effects on the immune system. Corporations capitalized and used this treatment to profit from the suffering, and, eventually, the effectiveness of the drug fizzled out. To this day, the best known limiting factor regarding the spread of HIV/AIDS remains education. Yet, the US remains hesitant to the free flow of HIV/AIDS education; law against needle exchanges still prevent the safe usage of IV drugs for addicts and educational information is still not allowed to be associated with homosexuality. The overall impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the US changed sexual practices and overall disease/epidemic awareness. Yet, the stigmata against the gay community and IV drug users still persists to the day.
Much like in the US, HIV/AIDS became associated with homosexuality, promiscuity, and drug usage in other affected countries around the world. However, scientific developments appeared to affect greater educational change in the rest of the world. In countries like Thailand, where there is a much more expansive sex industry, practices of safe sex education and free condom distribution have limited the spread of the disease. In more developed countries like England and Canada, needle exchanges and safe drug usage education have mitigated the spread of the disease in that specific risk group. Overall, the rest of the world appeared to shift the focus from the politicization of the disease to the mitigation of its spread through these aforementioned means. However, there is no cure for HIV/AIDS and effective treatment for the disease is not financially viable for the greater number of countries where AIDS runs rampant today, such as many underdeveloped African nations. Just like in the US, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has forever shifted global attitudes towards sex and drug usage education, albeit in a more positive and proactive way than in the US.