Kieran Leslie-Pritchard
Professor Allen
Plagues and Pandemics
3 November 2018
The Social Implications of Disease: HIV/Aids
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS was one of the most well known and deadly diseases of the entire twentieth century. This endemic not only had a significant impact on the world's population but it also sparked fierce political debate mainly centered around LGBT rights and particularly in the United States. This political debate was tied to a history of oppression towards LGBT individuals and marked the beginning of a slow a change in people's opinions, although before positive change occured this disease would be used to argue in favor of bigoted beliefs by a slew of politicians and other figures. The AIDS epidemic was the last major scare around a disease in the United States causing more of a general social upset that the more recent Ebola. The connection to the LGBT community led to a significant portion of the population to view AIDS simply as a disease that was only found in gay men. Due to the widespread homophobia of the time this serious disease was disregarded by many as something that would not affect them or they viewed this as proof of how homosexuality was wrong or sinful, such as in the case of many religious groups view’s at the time. There was also the political disregard for AIDS from more conservative christian politicians who echoed the opinions of there evangelical base.
The HIV infection is transmitted through bodily fluids. These include the main cause which is blood to blood. Whether it be through intravenous drug use, improper medical care with needles, or through sexual intercourse this is the most common cause of the infection. The HIV infection has three acute stages that make up its transition to and the final stage of the infection, AIDS. The first of these stages is the acute infection stage where most people develop a flu-like illness two to four weeks after they have been infected. Some people at this stage still have no symptoms though. The next stage of the infection is called Clinical latency. This stage can last anywhere from three to twenty years if it isn't treated. The last stage of the infection is the most well know one, Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. People with AIDS have an increased risk of developing various viral-induced cancers, including Kaposi's sarcoma, Burkitt's lymphoma, primary central nervous system lymphoma, and cervical cancer. people with AIDS also have systemic symptoms such as prolonged fevers, sweats, swollen lymph nodes, chills, weakness, and unintended weight loss. Due to the severity of the disease and the stigma surrounding surrounding transmission people who were suffering were discriminated against and ostracised. This was because of how the two groups, gay men and intravenous drug users, that had the stigma of being infected with AIDS were both already discriminated against by society.
Social stigma around people with AIDS exists around the world. It includes things like ostracism, rejection, and discrimination of HIV infected people as well as forced HIV testing without consent or privacy, violence against HIV infected people, and quarantining people with HIV. This social stigma is very harmful for everyone as stigma related violence and even just the fear of violence stops people from getting HIV testing and even treatment for the disease. Social stigma against people with aids usually is paired with another form of discrimination or bigotry. It is especially associated with homosexuality, bisexuality, promiscuity, prostitution, and intravenous drug use. In more developed countries there is an association between AIDS and homosexuality or bisexuality, and this association is correlated with higher levels of sexual prejudice, such as anti-homosexual/bisexual attitudes. People also believe in an association between AIDS and all homosexual behavior, including sex between uninfected men. This is in fact not even based on truth as the most common mode of spread worldwide for HIV is heterosexual transmission. This fact illustrates how strong the social factors that influenced people's opinions on AIDS victims were. That is because even though the majority of people who become infected with AIDS got it through heterosexual intercourse people believed for a very long time that it was only something that happened amongst gay people just because of how the stigma had been formed over the years surrounding the initial spreading of AIDS.
There are also many misconceptions about AIDS that have been spread throughout society. Three common ones are that AIDS can spread through normal contact like a handshake or bumping into someone, that sexual intercourse with a virgin can cure AIDS, and as previously mentioned that HIV only affects gay men and drug users. Even as recently as in 2014 some people in a survey of the British public believed that you could get HIV from kissing, sharing a glass, spitting, a public toilet seat, and coughing or sneezing. Another common misconception is that anal intercourse between uninfected gay men can lead to an infection and also that talking about HIV and homosexuality in schools will lead to increased rates of AIDS. A small group of people actually claim that there is no connection between HIV and AIDS. This is known as AIDS denialism and it has been disproved by the scientific community. Many discredited conspiracy theories have claimed that HIV was created by scientists. There was also a thing called Operation INFEKTION which was a worldwide Soviet operation to spread the claim that the United States had created HIV/AIDS.
One cultural impact the AIDS epidemic had was the controversial religious views regarding the subject. The religious position on how to prevent the spread of AIDS was that cultural changes were needed. Things like making people follow strict fidelity in marriage and sexual abstinence outside of it. Some religious organizations have claimed that prayer can cure AIDS. In 2011, the BBC reported that some churches in London were claiming that prayer would cure AIDS, and a London based Centre for the Study of Sexual Health and HIV reported that some people stopped taking their medication, sometimes on the direct advice of their pastor, leading to a number of deaths. The Synagogue Church Of All Nations advertised an "anointing water" to promote God's healing, although the group denies advising people to stop taking medication. Thes opinions all sparked great deals of controversy and are still shockingly prevalent even in the 21st century.
There have been many celebrities and high profile people who have had the disease and this has helped to lessen social stigma around the disease. One of the first high-profile cases of AIDS was Rock Hudson. He was a gay actor who died on October 2, 1985 having announced that he was suffering from the virus on July 25 that year. He had been diagnosed during 1984. A notable British death from AIDS that same year was Nicholas Eden, a gay politician and son of a former prime minister Anthony Eden. On November 24, 1991, Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the band Queen, died from an AIDS-related illness. This came as a massive shock to people as he had only revealed the diagnosis on the previous day. He had actually known this much longer as he learned about his diagnosis in 1987. One of the first high profile cases of the virus in a straight person was Arthur Ashe. He was an American tennis player who was diagnosed as HIV positive on August 31, 1988, having contracted the virus from blood transfusions during heart surgery earlier in the 1980s. Further tests within 24 hours of the initial diagnosis revealed that Ashe had AIDS but he didn’t tell the public about his diagnosis until April 1992. He died as a result on February 6, 1993 at age 49. One famous photo from the AIDS epidemic was Therese Frare's photograph of the gay rights activist David Kirby which was taken of him while he was dying surrounded by family. LIFE magazine said the photo became the one image "most powerfully identified with the HIV/AIDS epidemic."
One particularly notable example of someone who made a strong social impact during the AIDS epidemic is Ryan White. He became infected with HIV from a contaminated blood treatment and was given six months to live. Doctors said that he was no risk to other students but because AIDS was so stigmatised by the general public at the time he was discriminated against and not allowed to attend school. Many parents and teachers at his school tried to prevent him from attending because they were worried that the disease would be spread. An administrative appeal process was brought up by his family and news of this turned Ryan into a popular celebrity and advocate for AIDS research and public education. To his doctor’s surprise Ryan White lived five years longer than predicted. He died on April 8, 1990, one month before his high school graduation.
Before Ryan White, AIDS was a disease stigmatized as an illness impacting the gay community, because it was first diagnosed among gay men. That perception shifted as Ryan and other prominent straight HIV-infected people such as Magic Johnson, Arthur Ashe and the Ray brothers appeared publicly to advocate for more AIDS research and public education to address the epidemic. Ryan WHite was so influential that the U.S. Congress actually passed a major piece of AIDS legislation named after Ryan soon after he died. In fact Ryan White Programs are still the largest provider of services for people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States.
Overall the AIDS epidemic had a massive impact on the social climate of the United States and the world. It affected American politics as it marked a continued shift towards the evangelical christian right for the Republican party and towards more LGBT friendly attitudes being spread throughout the democratic party, although that did take longer. It also impacted religious organisations as some condemned AIDS victims simply because many were homosexual and a small few embraced the suffering community.