A Sad Anniversary

This year is the 30th anniversary of the identification of a disease called Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. Back in 1981, the illness was killing people at an alarming rate, and it would only get worse through the 80s and into the 90s, when drugs were invented that could slow the rate of infection by the HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), the agent that causes the disease. Now, because of anti-retroviral therapy developed in the mid-90s, many people can live with HIV for many years without developing AIDS.

Going back 30 years, I remember the days when it seemed that there was a funeral every week where a friend or acquaintance was buried. Some were well known, like the film actor Rock Hudson, some more obscure like my friend Michael Snow, a successful dentist. One thing almost all had in common was their homosexuality. Because of society's general proscription of that way of life, AIDS afflicted people were stigmatized as immoral and thus, to some, deserving of a painful death at a young age. This perception persists and causes people whose only crime was having unprotected sex or a using an infected needle to be cut off from sources of food, shelter, livelihood and medical care.

The disease may be moderated and controlled, but it is not gone. There are mutations that are not responsive to the medications used today. And there are still stigmas that cut sick people off from the things they need to survive, including the care and compassion they must have in order to go on after a diagnosis of HIV infection.