Humanity’s Newest Scourge: HIV, Its History in America, and the Way Forward
Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV is a viral infection that attacks CD4 cells inside of the human body. These cells are essential to helping the immune system recognize, bind to, and destroy infected cells and pathogens inside of the human body. If left untreated, HIV can reduce an individual’s CD4 cell count to a point where the immune system can no longer fight off infection. They are then subject to an increasingly severe set of infections that can range from pneumonia to tuberculosis, often resulting in the individual’s death. HIV originated in Africa as Simian Immunodeficiency Virus, found in primates. Likely from the practice of eating bush meat in various parts of Africa, the virus spread from primates to humans and began to spread. This transfer of SIV to HIV is generally plotted in the 1800s, however, HIV and the resulting syndrome known as AIDS did not come to international prominence until the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was at this point that HIV had spread to the United States and Western Europe from Africa and had begun to spread throughout the gay community. HIV is spread by bodily fluids, making methods of transmission generally unprotected sex, shared use of needles, and in rare cases from mother to child during birth or faulty blood transfusions.
When the disease first appeared in the United States, its prevalence in the gay community contributed to a slow societal response. At this point in U.S. politics, the religious right had been instrumental in Ronald Reagan’s presidential victory and the gay community was effectively shunned. This in addition to an already insular community kept news of the virus away from public eye, as well as contributed to reluctance of gay men to come forward and be tested for HIV. Haitian immigrants were also one of the first groups to have a large number of individuals contract HIV. As well as the gay community, language barriers and fear likely contributed to a reluctance to come forward or go to a hospital, allowing the virus to spread.
Once the virus was recognized and awareness began to take effect, societal factors inside of the United States limited its spread. Foremost among these was the practice of safe sex among a large portion of the unmarried populations. HIV has also impacted American culture in the way that safe sex is even more common now. The AIDS crisis also had an effect of bringing the gay community into the public eye in the U.S. particularly in a sympathetic lens after straight icons like Magic Johnson and Easy-E contracted HIV.
Several advances have been made in the way of HIV prevention and control. Chief among these is PrEP, a drug given to HIV susceptible populations like homosexuals that works to prevent the virus from taking hold. For those already infected PEP works to keep their T cell count high.