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Then & Now FUSION SPRING 2020
A Guide to HIV/AIDS
Words by Kalib Kiser & Angela Molina Infographic Information Sourced From hiv.gov HIV/AIDS has occupied a fearful space in the minds of many for over 40 years - and for good reason. In 1979 and 1980, doctors in Los Angeles and New York treated an increasing number of cases involving rare forms of pneumonia, cancer and other deadly illnesses. Then, in 1983, the virus causing these ailments was discovered, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic was in full swing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that since then, nearly 700,000 people have died of HIV/ AIDS in the United States alone. According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), gay and bisexual men account for only 2%
of the U.S. population but make up nearly 55% of all people living with HIV/AIDS in the country. The HRC also reports that if current rates of diagnosis continue, 1 in 6 gay and bisexual men will be living with HIV in their lifetime. This prediction is even higher for Latino and black men, which is projected to be 1 in 4 and 1 in 2, respectively. Although manageable treatment is becoming increasingly available, a cure to the virus has yet to be found. Despite this, HIV/AIDS has become yesterday’s epidemic for many in the affluent world. Several decades worth of drug development produced medications that allow many to continue living normal lives.
1980 June 1981
CDC’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” details “five young, white, previously healthy gay men” from Los Angeles whose immune systems are not working. This has been referred to as the first reporting of the AIDS epidemic.
January 1982
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The Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) is founded in New York City. It is the “first community-based AIDS service provider in the U.S.” Other AIDS activism groups, such as the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACTUP), are founded in the following years.
However, HIV/AIDS still claims many lives. The CDC reports that since the beginning of the global pandemic in 1981, 77.3 million people contracted HIV and 35.4 million died of AIDS-related illnesses. How is it possible that such a deadly disease with no cure lost its hold on the public’s attention? Today, the terms HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) are mistakenly used interchangeably. AIDS is the final stage of the overall HIV infection. HIV is the virus. It has no cure and, without treatment, can severely weaken the immune system. According to the CDC, it attacks
1990 September 1983
The CDC determines all major causes of transmission of AIDS, including unprotected sex, intravenous drug use, mother-to-child transmission and blood transfusions.
March 1987
1994
AIDS “becomes the leading cause of death for all Americans ages 25 to 44.”
The FDA approves the first medical treatment for AIDS. The antiretroviral drug, zidovudine (AZT), was “initially developed to treat cancer.”
