An Unfortunate History

 

Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome have an untraditional history compared to other diseases that have greatly affected humanity. The pair of HIV/AIDS was treated with an ignorance that hasn’t been seen in modern times. Since 1900, we likely learned much more about diseases and microbiology than all previous human history combined. We have successfully used this knowledge to eradicate or at least greatly suppress the prevalence of countless diseases. However, when we were confronted with HIV/AIDS, we did not attack it like we did for many other prevalent diseases. Instead, we ignored it and played it off as an insignificant occurrence. Due to our ignorance, we let this disease reach far more people than we should’ve.

HIV/AIDS was initially a disease that was primarily found in gay men. The social disapproval of homosexuality compounded the difficulty with which people could effectively manage the disease. At first, it was unknown what was going on and why people were dying. Eventually, a connection was made between the patients that indicated this disease targeted gay men. The public and even political response to this was unkind and irresponsible. People diagnosed with the disease were unfairly outcasted and public figure refused to acknowledge the severity of the disease or accurately represent the danger of the disease. Many people believed that you could contract the disease simply by touching someone diagnosed with it. This deeply worsened the public perception of the disease.

The good news about the disease is that it can only be spread by blood to blood contact. This meant that not anyone can get the disease. This factor likely drastically decreased the number of people who contracted the disease. However, there was enough of a negative social stigma that public leaders didn’t want to talk about the disease and led to many people vigorously protesting about the disease. The disease slowly kills you by attacking your immune system and allowing for opportunistic infections to take hold. This makes life hard to live without all the social negativity because of how negatively it impacts your health. To make matter worse, even when treatments came out, like AZT, it was so expensive that people became poor and impoverished in their attempts to find treatment. This is a terrible fate for someone trying to live out the rest of their limited lifetime.

Happily, the public in the U.S. has made great progress since the disease first started to appear. Now, it is far easier for people to talk about the disease, prevent the disease and get treated for it. We no longer have people hiding trying to not let people find out they are infected. We now have much more research than we did before, and we understand how the disease spreads which allowed us to scientifically moderate our behavior to limit the spread of the disease. This is exemplified by the fact that we no longer treat people with the disease with severe caution and distance. We know we don’t need to isolate them or ourselves. Having a community to support you when you are sick is very important and now people with HIV/AIDs don’t need to fear about having such support.

In 2017, around 1.1 million people had, and 40,000 people were diagnosed with HIV in the United States. At the same time around 15,000 people died from HIV. There are now many ways to test yourself or get tested to whether or not you have HIV. There is a pre-exposure prophylaxis and post-exposure prophylaxis are medicines that can lower the chance that you get HIV before or after you’re potentially or definitely exposed to the disease. These medicines are targeted for people who fear they may be at risk for contracting the disease. There are also needle exchange programs and other proactive programs that target the misuse of needles to try to prevent the disease from spreading. The best way to protect yourself from the disease is safely participate in sex and to use sterile needles when you use drugs. This will limit your exposure to the disease. Treatment for those affected by the disease only have antiretroviral drugs to help treat their symptoms. Unfortunately, there is no cure for the disease. However, the antiretroviral drugs are good at lengthening your life and effectively limiting your symptoms. Although you will have to live with the disease, it can be managed.

HIV/AIDS has an unfortunate history and many people’s lives could have been drastically improved if action was taken earlier to make living with the disease easier. The disease slowly destroys your immune system, making you susceptible to other deadly disease. The quality of life of someone living with the disease deteriorates and they need a support system to help them live comfortably. Historically, it has been hard for people to get this support due to the negative social stigma of having the disease. Overtime however, people began to recognize that the disease does no only affect gay men and it has no specific target. Since then, our understanding of the disease has drastically improved and prophylaxes and treatments are available to help contain the disease and make life easier for those with the disease. There are still many people contracting the disease and although we have made great progress in eradicating it, there is still much more to do.

 

All Information Was Gathered From The Sources On Canvas And The CDC Website