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40 Years of AIDS
Jun. 5th, 2021 08:31 pmWe've had enough talk about one epidemic for the past 16 months, right? Let's talk about a different epidemic! 😅😰ðŸ˜
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first clinically reported AIDS cases. As this CNN article (June 5, 2021) explains, the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on June 5, 1981 grouped 5 cases of a rare lung disease in otherwise healthy men in Los Angeles. The men had become sick with the infections over the prior 7 months, and two had died.
Pinning a specific date as the answer to the question, "When did AIDS originate?" is hard. Some would argue the date should be earlier, as people were already dying in 1981. Later studies found probable cases, though not widespread, years earlier. At the same time the date is also early. 40 years ago is when epidemiologists and infectious disease experts starting connecting the dots. They didn't yet know what it was. Even the terms HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome) were not agreed upon until a year later.
The first I learned about AIDS was 2 years later, when it made the cover of Time magazine on July 4, 1983.
I remember the cover picture vividly and I remember reading the story, though my understanding of it was incomplete as I wasn't yet even a teenager.
Awareness of AIDS became mainstream in the US after this publication. Informed awareness remained relatively rare, though. Scientists were still figuring out how the disease worked. Into the gaps of factual knowledge were poured boatloads of ignorance. People spread false stories out of fear... and hatred. Hatred, because AIDS was tightly associated with gay sex and intravenous drug use, two behaviors most religious and cultural conservatives regard as morally reprehensible.
While much more has been learned about AIDS over the past 40 years, the choice by many to diminish or ignore it as a moral failing remains. You sinned, this is your consequence.
This has led to a lack of political leadership in solving the AIDS crisis. 40 years later there isn't a cure or even a vaccine. Meanwhile an estimated 35 million people worldwide have died. 40 years. Compare that to how fast a Coronavirus vaccine was developed.
At least there are effective treatments today. They don't cure AIDS but they do greatly reduce its impact. People are now living with AIDS, not dying from it. "AIDS is the new diabetes," some people quip. But the drugs are expensive. So while the reasonably well-to-do can afford survival, the disease remains a scourge among the poor and in developing countries.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the first clinically reported AIDS cases. As this CNN article (June 5, 2021) explains, the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on June 5, 1981 grouped 5 cases of a rare lung disease in otherwise healthy men in Los Angeles. The men had become sick with the infections over the prior 7 months, and two had died.
Pinning a specific date as the answer to the question, "When did AIDS originate?" is hard. Some would argue the date should be earlier, as people were already dying in 1981. Later studies found probable cases, though not widespread, years earlier. At the same time the date is also early. 40 years ago is when epidemiologists and infectious disease experts starting connecting the dots. They didn't yet know what it was. Even the terms HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome) were not agreed upon until a year later.
The first I learned about AIDS was 2 years later, when it made the cover of Time magazine on July 4, 1983.
I remember the cover picture vividly and I remember reading the story, though my understanding of it was incomplete as I wasn't yet even a teenager.Awareness of AIDS became mainstream in the US after this publication. Informed awareness remained relatively rare, though. Scientists were still figuring out how the disease worked. Into the gaps of factual knowledge were poured boatloads of ignorance. People spread false stories out of fear... and hatred. Hatred, because AIDS was tightly associated with gay sex and intravenous drug use, two behaviors most religious and cultural conservatives regard as morally reprehensible.
While much more has been learned about AIDS over the past 40 years, the choice by many to diminish or ignore it as a moral failing remains. You sinned, this is your consequence.
This has led to a lack of political leadership in solving the AIDS crisis. 40 years later there isn't a cure or even a vaccine. Meanwhile an estimated 35 million people worldwide have died. 40 years. Compare that to how fast a Coronavirus vaccine was developed.
At least there are effective treatments today. They don't cure AIDS but they do greatly reduce its impact. People are now living with AIDS, not dying from it. "AIDS is the new diabetes," some people quip. But the drugs are expensive. So while the reasonably well-to-do can afford survival, the disease remains a scourge among the poor and in developing countries.
