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My Disease and Civilization class recently jumped from studying tuberculosis to discussing the first twenty years of the AIDS epidemic. The articles we read all spoke about the vast leaps that were made in the first two decades after AIDS came to the forefront in 1981, its evolution from GRID (Gay Related Immune Deficiency) to the standard distinctions between HIV and AIDS; the social stigmatization of its victims in America; its terrifying spread throughout African countries.

The articles closed with an optimistic statement about “the next twenty years of AIDS” and what we could hope to achieve. Then it hit me — yesterday’s World AIDS Day 2009 marks almost thirty years of the epidemic! We’re nearly halfway to the next benchmark set by the scientific and political communities, so what do we have to show for it?

About a month ago, President Obama signed into effect the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009, bipartisan legislation that will allow the Ryan White Program to continue treating those suffering from HIV.

Obama also announced the elimination of the HIV entry ban — the intention is that, by January 2010, people who have HIV but aren’t citizens of the U.S. will be able to enter the country for treatment, one step on the way to eliminating the stigma attached to the disease.

This year, as in years past, JoinRED has led the way through social networking, scooping up Facebook and Twitter. The latter urged users to tweet #red in order to turn their text this powerful color:

The official site has video stories that relate to this year’s theme, Universal Access and Human Rights. Says the featured storyteller Gary, “I don’t suffer from HIV, I live with it.” It’s commendable that in twenty-eight years we’ve moved from a global disaster to what some now consider a chronic disease, but that’s not enough. While eliminating stigma is imperative, governments and educators also must find ways to get through to people who are unwilling or unable to follow safe sexual practices, or who otherwise put themselves and their loved ones in danger.

HIV is both a horizontal and a vertical means of infection; we need to attack it from all angles.

[Via World AIDS Day, The White House, JoinRED]

[Image sources: Canadian Aids Treatment Information Exchange, Shabooty]

[Video source: The White House]

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