AIDS and HIV Impact

AIDS and HIV did not become big news until I was about 17 years old. I had already been having sex for several years when stories began to fill the news paper headlines and posters appeared on the walls of clinic offices around the country. I clearly remember how scared I and many of my friends were over this epidemic that could take your life after one night of fun.

Up until this point, safe sex meant avoiding The Clap, herpes and pregnancy. Yes there were more horrific STDs out there like Syphilis, but those were not talked about much. In fact there was not much talk at all about STDs except for your doctor reminding you to use condoms and handing you a sack full of them. Most of those were used as slippery water balloons, I was on The Pill, I did not need condoms… or so I thought.

I remember people being panicked about the possibility of becoming infected with AIDs by using a dirty fork, kissing another person, getting bitten by a mosquito or flea that had bitten an HIV positive person and so many other ridiculous scenarios. I also remember the level of hate toward homosexuals increasing among friends and acquaintances.  Hate that I never understood, I had homosexual friends and they were good people, not the evil perverts everyone was making them out to be. In fact many of them were better people ethically than many of the heterosexuals who were aiming their weapons of hate against people who never did anything worse than be attracted to someone of the same sex.

I was terrified to have an HIV test, terrified they would find I had HIV. I was 25 years old before I had one. Since then I have had one after every sexual partner. At this point I would rather know and be responsible about it than not know and possibly spread it to someone else.  I also took more precautions, using condoms during sex and having sex a lot less regularly.

Today, I have HIV positive friends. I watch them suffer with the disease and the side effects from the early medications like AZT. I see the way they are treated by hateful people, not only because they are gay but because they have HIV. One even had his medical records released to the community by someone that worked at the hospital because she felt it was her obligation to let the community know who in town was infected with HIV.

I watched two children grow up without their father because he was infected early on with HIV and passed away.  He was heterosexual and died in 1998 his sons were 8 years old and 14 years old and his loss impacted their lives tremendously. The way that he died, wasting away before their eyes for years also impacted them as children.

This week I learned of a new drug that has been developed which may lower the risk of contracting HIV. Truvada was tested on healthy gay men and showed that if taken faithfully they were 90% protected against contracting HIV.  This medication could truly be a miracle, but at the cost of $1000.00 a month I doubt it will help end the epidemic. While I can understand research and marketing costs behind medications I truly cannot understand, that if this drug can truly prevent HIV and AIDS infections, why it is beyond the means of so many who could benefit from it.

We could be entering a new era where the fear of HIV infection no longer plays a role in our lives, that is, of course if you are one of the few who can afford the preventative medicines. It is truly reprehensible that this drug is so expensive. It could save millions in medical expenses and millions of lives, but will not be given the chance because of the cost.