Ahliyah Williams
Dr. Hinks
07/22/19
Help Received: None Ahliyah Williams
Breaking News! The Cure To HIV… Has NOT Been Found
Many factors led to the epidemic of HIV in the US. Some of those factors being the rapid spread of premiscous homosexuality in the US. Homosexuals were blamed for the spread of HIV in the US. Not only were they blamed, but many other groups of people were blamed. Hemophiliacs, people who cannot clot blood normally, were also tremendously slandered in many ways. Politics begin to play a role with the spread of HIV within homosexual communties. Society was completely against a certain group of people, showing complete discrimination against a certain type of people. All of these events were not only ethically wrong, but completely ignorant. Although there is still no known cure to HIV, there has been a “powerful tool to end HIV”, called PreP. Still, there is of course challenges with finding a true cure of hiv, but advanced management for the virus has helped to control it within people are affected with HIV. During the 80s people were completely clueless and struggled to find the true cause of the HIV disease and to identify how it spreads.
Homosexuality has always been hidden and ignored for many years in the US. Even though homosexuality has been known to be prevelant even in ancient history with Alexander The Great who had a male lover. Due to California seen as one of the most liberal states in the US, homosexuality was very prominent in especially Los Angelas, CA. From gay bars and clubs to ‘bathhouses’, homosexuality peaked in the 80’s. The first case of HIV was from a homosexual man named Ken Horne in San Francisco, CA. Shortly after that, many more cases of HIV begin to flow in the hospitals. All of these HIV cases at first were seen upon homosexual men. Of course with that, people begin to gain more hatred for the homosexual community. It became a question when HIV was mostly seen in the homosexual community. People began to ask “how”? Bathhouses in the gay community was one factor to the increase of the spread of HIV. Bathhouses were saunas, specifically for gay people to go and have premiscous sex with many partners. These were super popular during the 80’s. So, when one infected person had multiple partners at once, those partners spread it to other multiple people just making HIV spread like rapid wildfire. Homosexuals were also not the most admired group, still in this time of day. What group of people are better to blame about a virus that is killing people than gays? Hemophiliacs are people who cannot clot their blood by themselves. Blood Plasma banks made it possible for people to donate their blood for some quick cash. What happens when a majority of those people who are donating blood are homeless and/or infected with HIV? Hundreds or even thousands of hemophiliacs are now infected simply from blood. Hemophiliacs were now a point of interest for HIV. Hemophiliac children were even kept from school because it was thought that HIV was spread simply from regular daily contact with other people. Politics came in the story when the president during that time, Ronald Regan began to speak on the issue. The president who was the very person who was supposed to calm down the public and protect all citizens only did worse by publicly saying that until he knows what the true problem of the spread of HIV was, he will keep the people who are believed to be the source of it from being around others. Instead he could’ve been spreading education and keeping children in school. This was all just a whole turmoil of events and HIV was so disturbingly misunderstood.
Why is HIV still not cured after all these years? The HIV virus is such a complicated and sneaky virus that because of the structure of it, locating and getting rid of it is a very difficult thing to do. Life is very hard for people living with HIV, if untreated it can turn into AIDS, where your immune system is severely damaged. Lives of people with HIV or AIDS will forever be a hardship, built with the invention of some modern technologies, life is somewhat better for those people. People living with HIV are normal people and can have normal lives, they can even have a partner. Pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, is used strategy is used by HIV-negative people who are in contact with those who are infected. According to Livia Ripka, Australia are on their way to fully eradicate HIV by using PrEP. PrEP is helping to prevent new infections from happening. It reduces the risk of becoming infected with HIV, but it is still not a complete cure for HIV. Another strategy is Antiretroviral Therapy or ART. It is used to treat HIV- infected people. Both ART and PrEP are two strategies so far that have been helping the lives of many HIV- infected people and getting a step closer to a cure.
In conclusion, HIV has been a long misunderstood virus that only recently has been understood better. From discriminating against homosexuals to even taking hemophiliac children out of school HIV has been a long troublemaker in society. Political figures such as president Ronald Regean caused much controversy and the misleading of how necessary education is for progressing. The world still does not have a cure because of the complexity of the HIV virus, but it has been managed through systems that could control the spread of the infection and make many people’s lives better. With these systems of prevention, we are getting one step closer to the cure to HIV.
References
Ronald Regean
2019. Ripka. How Aulstralia Could Almost Eradicate HIV Transmissions. The New York Times
What is PrEP? PrEPFacts.org
HIV Treatment. AidsInfo.nih.gov
HIV and The Blood Supply. NCBI.
History of Homosexuality. Wikipedia.
1987. President Ronald Regean Speech. ABC News.
Searching For a Cure For HIV and AIDS. Avert.org
Why is it so Hard To Cure HIV/AIDS. Science of HIV.