Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the first diagnosis of HIV. Research into how HIV began is still inconclusive. Sporadic cases were reported prior to 1970 but no name was given to it and it wasn’t the pandemic it became in the 1980s. It is generally accepted that HIV can be traced back to Africa and then carried over to the United States. The virus then grew in strength (and numbers) in the late 1970s making its presence known to the medical world in California on 5 June 1981.
California was hit hard in 1981 when (predominantly) gay men were testing positive for a fatal virus the world had never seen before. With no previous knowledge, medical staff had no way of treating the illness and therefore thousands of people died over the next decade, some only living a few weeks/months after diagnosis.
As the first cases were only seen in gay men, doctors assumed that this would only affect homosexuals and was named as GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency). When this was later to be found false in 1982, the acronym AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) was suggested and used in newspapers and scientific journals.
We still use the term AIDS today when in fact we mean HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). The difference is that AIDS is a syndrome, in this case; the last effects of the immune system breaking down. It is medical terminology for when HIV has broken down the immune system leaving it vulnerable to an attack from another illness that may ordinarily not be fatal.
With so little known in the 80s, a lot of fear arose without any solid evidence. Gays, drug users and even hemophiliacs were segregated. But by 1987 the World Health Organisation had been notified of 43,880 cases in 91 countries. Now this was everyone’s problem and knowing that it was sexually contracted sparked the harrowing AIDS adverts worldwide, to inform people of the seriousness and to urge everyone to use a condom. “Don’t die of ignorance.”
1989 saw the introduction of drugs that could slow the progression of the virus. Although extremely expensive, these were seen as a turning point in the fight against AIDS. By the end of the decade, an estimated 8-10 million people were living with HIV.
Over the next 10 years, drugs were improved and slashed in price but still infection rates rose. The side effects from treatment were in some cases severe, with people suffering from lipodystrophy, organ failure and even death.
By 2003 many drug manufacturers had lowered their prices for antiretroviral drugs and had made the treatment more effective in a smaller dose with far fewer side effects. People were not only surviving with HIV but actually living. Now in 2011, the life expectancy of a person living with HIV on medication is almost the same as someone without HIV – as long as the virus is detected early. This is why it is so important for everyone to have regular tests. It is better to know and deal with it than to let HIV win. The virus cannot be passed on from someone on medication with an undetectable level of HIV in their blood and with a CD4 count of over 400. For the first time since the discovery of HIV, it is contained and manageable.
The problem with this is people are no longer worried about HIV. 30 years later and we have once again become ignorant. Next year, the UK will hit 100,000 people living with HIV (60m worldwide) and yet funding has been cut by a fifth in the past year. It is too easy to forget how many people have suffered and died and how it still affects millions of people on a daily basis. HIV may be a manageable, chronic disease now, but it is by no means easy to live with. Side effects from the medication are still prevalent, the emotional state of the mind is almost always affected and stigma is widely in force. There is still a large proportion of the world who still don’t realise that HIV dies in oxygen and it can only be passed through sex and needles.
There is still no vaccine, but I believe there will be at some point. As far as a cure goes – why would anyone invest in a cure? Pharmaceutical companies make too much money from selling the drugs for a now manageable illness. If a vaccine is released, they will make continuing money from the vaccine whist still selling the medication to the 60 million people affected. If caught early and treated with the right medication, HIV is no longer a death sentence; therefore it seems only right to put our efforts into finding a vaccine rather than the seemingly impossible task of a cure. As with everything; prevention is the best defence. We here at Gay Chat Towers hope that in the next 30 years AIDS doesn’t exist at all and HIV has become a vaccine as routine as rubella. In the meantime, play safe!
Terry Gee
Maleforce Flasher 
