1981 was the turning point in the economic, social, cultural, and health evolution of humanity. A new virus, later called “AIDS”, forever changed public attitudes to health, life, and wellbeing. A virus killing millions of people every year, AIDS has already become a distinctive feature of the global reality. So routine and usual, AIDS no longer surprises anyone. HIV is not unusual. AIDS is not uncommon. We have grown to accept HIV and AIDS as something unquestionable but not necessarily inevitable.
AIDS is around us; it is everywhere, but it is no longer as threatening as it used to be a decade ago. Whether this is due to the recent advances in retroviral medicine or our passivity in the face of a serious health threat does not really matter. AIDS continues its killing mission on the planet, and only knowledge of the disease’s early history can create an adequate picture of the problem. It is extremely important to learn about the early history of HIV/AIDS, since this knowledge can offer a clue to the problem of curing the disease or at least stop the rapid expansion of the AIDS epidemic in all parts of the world.
No one is secured from the risks of HIV/ AIDS. Through blood transfusions, injection drugs, and unprotected sex the virus attacks millions of people, giving them few chances to live a long and happy life. Despite revolutionary advances in retroviral therapy, thousands of people all over the world lack access to even the basic medical care. Others are simply unaware of their health problems. HIV is invisible like air, and it is not before it begins eating people from within that they understand something is wrong with their health.
The early history of HIV/AIDS teaches a tragic lesson of unawareness: gay men did not know they were infected and could be responsible for hundreds of innocent deaths; medical professionals were also unaware of the nature, causes, and mechanisms of HIV transmission. As a result, a routine procedure of blood transfusion killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people of all ages, races, and professions. Injection drugs rapidly spread the message of HIV all over the world. Learning the early history of HIV/AIDS is crucial to understanding everyone’s role in stopping the epidemic.
Learning the early history of HIV/ AIDS can
- provide a clue to curing the disease,
- explain the tragedy of discrimination and stigma against those infected with HIV/ AIDS.
People with HIV or AIDS carry a disproportionate burden of isolation and public rejection because of their health state. They lose their families and friends. Many of them end their lives in hospital settings, hopeless, lost in their emotions, and unprepared for the end of life. The story of political battles and debates adds weight to the current understanding of AIDS. Political controversies surrounding the issue of AIDS ask two important questions. First, given the scope of the AIDS epidemic, can it be treated as a political issue? Second, who is to finance the battle against HIV/ AIDS? Sections Political Indifference and Financing the Battle provide their own answers to these questions.
While the developed world gradually realizes the gravity of the HIV/ AIDS situation, people in developing countries have problems and concerns other than AIDS. Wars and political tensions leave little room for health care and push HIV/ AIDS to the background of the political arena. At the other end of the HIV/ AIDS continuum is the issue of financing the battle against AIDS. Who is to sponsor anti-AIDS campaigns has long been a matter of public concern.
Apparently, the problem of HIV/ AIDS is no longer confined to a group of white gay males living at the beginning of the 1980s. The problem of HIV/ AIDS is no longer medical but globally political. In this situation, learning the early history of the disease can aid in the development of complex policy solutions. Unfortunately, even they can hardly teach people to be more cautious in their relations with each other.