30 Years: The Changing Face of AIDS in the US

by Aldona Martinka

IRMA is drawing the focus to the thirtieth anniversary of HIV/AIDS with a short series on AIDS history. It will explore where we began, where we are now, and where we are going as we continue to battle this disease with hope and determination. This is part four of five.

People living with HIV and AIDS in the United States today are in a position that was completely unforeseeable to those living with the disease in the eighties. Today a positive diagnosis is far from a death sentence to most Americans, and there are daily pills one can take that will subdue the virus for decades if the routine is followed closely. People in their fifties, many of whom were diagnosed in those terrifying early years, will soon most likely make up the majority of people living with AIDS in the US. New prevention technologies have moved from condoms to a plethora of exciting possibilities such as topical microbicides and treatment as prevention. AIDS stigma, while still a problem in many instances, is so much less ignorant than what it was even 20 years ago.

As the face of AIDS in the US changes, life for those living with the disease and their loved ones has become much more bearable. But with these positive changes come a whole host of new problems that no one could have foreseen a quarter of a century ago.

The illnesses which most commonly affect AIDS patients, for instance, have shifted from the opportunistic cancers and infections which killed so many early victims, to heart conditions, neurological disorders, and other illnesses typical of the elderly. Pre-mature aging has become the more likely scenario today as patients in their fifties and above face problems most often experienced by those twenty to thirty years older than them.

Another new issue facing people with AIDS that no one could foresee thirty years ago is the criminalization of those with the virus. There are far too many instances of scared and ignorant people accusing past and current sexual partners of being criminals for having sex while being HIV positive. For an excellent account of criminalization of the HIV/AIDS community read Sean Strub’s blog post at Poz Magazine.

As we adapt to AIDS, in America and worldwide, we will have to be resourceful, understanding, and hopeful to face whatever the virus will throw our way next. As a country and a world united, we can try to end AIDS before another 30 years has passed.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Countdown to 30 Years: Up in Arms

by Aldona Martinka, IRMA intern

As the thirtieth anniversary of the very beginning of the AIDS crisis draws near, IRMA will be counting down the last five days with a short series on AIDS history. It will explore where we began, where we are now, and where we are going as we continue to battle this disease with hope and determination. This is part two of five.

When the eighties came to a close the world was still reeling from the devastation of a new, terrible disease. In the past few years strides had been made to de-stigmatize HIV and its victims, but they were still misunderstood and underrepresented in the media and in the government. This really began to change in the nineties as the government, technology, and pop culture finally took up arms on a large scale.

Ryan White died in April of 1990, and four months later the first Ryan White CARE (Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency) Act was enacted, marking the largest piece of AIDS-related legislation to date, allocating $220.5 million in federal funds for HIV care and treatment. Since then it has been reauthorized three times. In the next years, congress would pass several more pieces of legislation that would give funds, housing, and (most importantly) legitimacy and support to AIDS victims and advocates. In 1991 the ubiquitous symbol of AIDS support and awareness, the red ribbon, is launched. Right after AIDS became the number one cause of death for males 25-44, the FDA approved a 10-minute HIV test which would change testing for and diagnosis of HIV in the United States. The female condom is approved in 1993. AIDS is the number one cause of death for women 25-44 as well in 1994. Months later AZT is approved to help prevent vertical transmission of the virus. Clinton’s Conference on HIV/AIDS in 1995 comes the year that the number of US HIV cases crosses the 500,000 line.

The nineties were not just a decade of political advocacy and technological advances; celebrities began to follow in the footsteps of Elizabeth Taylor and others supporting the fight against AIDS. “Magic” Johnson announced his HIV-positive status in 1991. Rock and roll fans everywhere mourned when icon Freddie Mercury of Queen died from AIDS-related pneumonia. Tom Hanks starred in the film “Philadelphia” as a lawyer with AIDS, bringing his repute and acting talent to the first major Hollywood film about AIDS. Athletes, artists, and other celebrities come forward throughout the decade, each one helping to reduce stigma just a little.

Finally, in 1996, the United States collectively heaves a sigh when the number of new diagnoses of AIDS drops for the first time since the start of the epidemic due mostly to the advent of Highly Active Anti-Retrorviral Therapy (HAART.) Really for the first time there are drugs that can suppress the virus.  AIDS is no longer the cause for most 25-44 year olds, but remains so for African-Americans. The next year the CDC reports a 47% decline in AIDS deaths from the last year. With such significant improvements, even though AIDS continues to be a vicious disease in the US (especially among minorities), eyes turn to AIDS in the rest of the world as the crisis becomes a global issue. In the new millennium the United States continues to battle HIV at home, but also sends support overseas where victims of the disease in the third world are ravaged by its effects.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]

Countdown to 30 Years: The Eighties and AIDS

By Aldona Martinka, IRMA intern

As the thirtieth anniversary of the very beginning of the AIDS crisis draws near, IRMA will be counting down the last five days with a short series on AIDS history. It will explore where we began, where we are now, and where we are going as we continue to battle this disease with hope and determination. This is part one of five. 

In less than a week it will have been 30 years since the first mention of the disease in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that would someday be known as AIDS . This June 5 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the beginning of the global fight against AIDS. No one knew it then, but the disease behind that cluster of cases of rare Pneumonia would shock the world, set people against each other, and eventually bring together politicians, scientists, and humanitarian workers in what has been perhaps the greatest public health battle since Polio.

Struggling to understand this new disease, the first step was to name it. The first proposed name for the illness was Gay-Related Immunodeficiency (GRID), but that was amended to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in 1982 for the sake of accuracy. Nevertheless, the mindset that it was a “gay problem” persisted for years, causing stigma that would inhibit HIV education and prevention, causing harm to countless victims both gay and not. The virus that causes AIDS was not discovered until 1984. It eventually came to be called the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) as we know it today. 1984 was also the year that Ryan White, poster child for the AIDS epidemic of the eighties and future namesake for national legislation, was diagnosed with the disease, having contracted it from a contaminated blood transfusion for his hemophilia.

In the next year AIDS became the topic of choice for everyone from scientists to journalists; from doctors to celebrities; from politicians to housewives. Ignorance and misinformation abounded, and many suffering from HIV/AIDS were shunned and discriminated against. Ryan White was not allowed to return to his middle school in Indiana after being diagnosed, and 117 parents and 50 teachers signed a petition to ban him from the school. When he was eventually permitted to attend, the White family had to deal with death threats and property damage, and White himself was ostracized at school. The Ray brothers, the children of a Florida family, were also hemophiliacs, who had contracted HIV through blood transfusions, and their parents also experienced exclusion. After they won a court battle to be allowed to attend school their home was burned down. At this point in history AIDS meant impending death, and caretakers could only try to make their patients and loved ones comfortable as they passed away.

Despite all the fear and the anger there was also hope. The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) formed in 1987at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center in New York, the same year that arsonists attacked the Ray’s home, and the same year that the first drug for the treatment of AIDS was approved: AZT. ACT UP would be one of the most important HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations ever, and AZT and the antiretrovirals that followed it would lengthen the lives of those afflicted by this horrible disease that had once been a swift death sentence. AIDS patients could even hope for relatively normal lives. Condoms also became a hot topic as they appeared in PSAs and ads across the country, beginning the de-stigmatization of protection methods that could save lives.

[If an item is not written by an IRMA member, it should not be construed that IRMA has taken a position on the article's content, whether in support or in opposition.]