BIO 245X

7/19/18

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact 8: HIV/AIDS

One of the most known disease in the world is HIV, or AIDS. The reason this disease is so known is because for a long time, it has been a disease which we were not able to contain all around the world. In the U.S, a nation known for our medicine, we too had a problem with epidemic of AIDS. Between not knowing the transmission of the disease or how to cure it, there was a large panic around the disease altogether. Unfortunately, like with most epidemics, we had to find a scapegoat for how the disease was a problem in our society. Since some of the cases where AIDS was discovered was in the gay community, people in our society started shunning gays and their community as a whole. Another negative impact on contracting this disease for anyone was the social shunning. Since it was unknown how the disease was transmitted exactly, people would avoid those with AIDS at all costs. It was also hard for people with AIDS to get appropriate treatment because they would lose their sources of incomes. Like any medication, AIDS medication or treatments were extremely expensive. So, when people contacted the disease, they often lost all hope of ever having a normal life ever again. Another impact on the stigma of those with AIDS came in a presidential address about the disease. When asked if we should be pulling children from their classes to avoid children with AIDS, despite the fact that the president had been told transmission could not come from day-to-day contact, the president said that he understands why parents do that and that he would do the same thing. This of course made the problem worse.

Fortunately for citizens in the U.S. today, we have come a long way in both prevention of HIV and treatments of HIV. We now have in place treatments called PrEP, which have been proven to prevent the spread of HIV. This is a huge step for society considering that at one time in the world, AIDS was the number four cause of death. Since the outbreak of AIDS, our society has changed juristically. We stress in schools across the nation the importance of protected sex with any partner, male or female. This comes from the knowledge that the disease can be transmitted through sexual contact. Another way our society changed was the shared knowledge of why not to share needles and other devices that come in to contact with bodily fluids. When the outbreak of AIDS occurred, the drug community took a large hit because of the sharing of needles. We have since stressed the importance of sanitation of any device that will involve human fluids. Often nowadays, the same needle is never used more than once, whether that is in hospitals or tattoo parlors. HIV/AIDS was a elite disease in which I believe our society handled very well and we may someday find the cure to this disease, rather than the suppression of the symptoms which we have today.

Help Received: Film, PDF on canvas

Noah Delaney-Manuel