HIV was originally considered to be a gay disease; as gay men were the start of this disease. It wasn’t until the 21st century that there were gay men on a widespread scale, which made HIV much easier to spread from person to person. As more gay men were passing this disease around, eventually there were some bisexual men that got involved, and the disease found itself to be passed to women as well.
The greatest factor that has helped stop the spread of HIV in the United States today is the power of education. We used to be afraid to talk about the disease when it first came around, as it was a very taboo topic. There was a stigma against people that had HIV in the past. People believed that they had done something inherently wrong. Due to this, people with HIV hesitated to reach out for treatment. They were afraid of the backlash that would occur against them on a social level.
Condoms have also worked wonders to help the spread of HIV. Today there are many men and women who have contracted the disease. Condoms help to shield new people from getting HIV, which keeps the spread of the disease down overall as well. US culture today doesn’t even view HIV with a whole lot of seriousness. There’s a certain amount of humor and taboo that still swirls around this disease, still making it a troublesome topic. This shows that although we have made much progress dealing with this disease as a nation, there is still much more education and prevention to be done in order to be successful. Of course, the fact remains that although we have developed ways to help with the symptoms, and outright cure still does not exist.
Progress has been made on an overall scale in the battle with this disease, however there are certain demographics that still struggle to overcome the ailments on this disease. For example, HIV is still most prevalent among the gay community. In regards to race, African Americans are the most susceptible to this disease. Education clearly still needs to be spread to these demographic groups in order to help them prevent the spread of HIV.