“The Age of AIDS,” which marks the 25th anniversary of the first documented instances of the AIDS epidemic. HIV/AIDS keeps spreading fast over the globe, especially in poor countries, despite decades of political rejection and societal stigma, as well as groundbreaking scientific discoveries, harsh policy debates, and ineffective preventative efforts. There have already been 30 million deaths from AIDS globally. A very deadly virus has spread across the world. UNAIDS executive director Dr. Peter Piot argues, “It strikes straight to the core of our existence,” and he’s correct. This virus has infected around 70 million individuals in the last 25 years, most likely from a single transmission, which is mind-boggling.
There are around 40 million people in the world who are HIV-positive. Globally, HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 59, with 14,000 infections emerging every day. All new infections happen to persons younger than 26, with a majority happening in those under 25. (Angotti,. Et al 2018). More than 40 million people are likely to get HIV in the next decade. When it comes to treating individuals as they get infected with AIDS, an AIDS researcher “Man of the Year,” says, “We can’t keep treating people as they are sick.” Stopping the virus from evolving is the only way of stopping this pandemic from spreading.
Unprotected intercourse, mother-to-child transmission during delivery or nursing, sharing infected drug needles or obtaining tainted blood products are some of the ways HIV is transmitted. According to the Disease control And Prevention and Prevention, the number of new HIV diagnoses in the United States reached 47,000. HIV-1 and HIV-2 are two of the most common types of HIV, although this documentary refers to HIV or HIV/AIDS. Although there is no medication for HIV infection, there is a cure. Antiretroviral treatment medications keep HIV levels low, preventing the immune system from deteriorating. The term “drug cocktail” refers to the use of three or more antiretroviral therapies.
The FDA authorized more than twenty medications for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Drug resistance or negative effects from therapy necessitate a slew of fresh clinical studies exploring hundreds of new medications. As a result of behavioral adjustments, new infections may be prevented. These include using condoms, abstinence and limiting sexual partners. To further reduce the transmission of infection, procedures such as needle exchange and male circumcision have been shown to be successful. Many vaccination experiments are now underway, despite the fact that the first efforts to create a vaccine were ineffective. New medication classes are being examined, as well as alternate methods of prevention, such as microbial gels.
‘The Age of AIDS’ explores why we haven’t been able to stop HIV’s spread. One of the most important scientific and political stories of our time is examined in this four-hour miniseries, which tells the story of a mysterious agent who managed to infiltrate society and used its flaws and obligations to spread all over the world , sexual desire and substance addiction, prejudice and selfishness, philosophical indifference and bureaucratic indifference. AIDS activist Fr. Martin Luther, Jr., former President Bill Clinton, Bono, and U2 front man Bono were among the scientists and politicians interviewed for the documentary, “The Age of AIDS,” shot in 19 countries across the world and included interviews with scientists and politicians.
The scientific and medical enigma that arose in 1981 when five gay people in Los Angeles were infected with a new illness is explored in the two-hour premiere presentation of “The Age of AIDS.” Documents scientists and epidemiologists’ frantic efforts to trace out the origins of a lethal epidemic that spread among homosexual men, drug users, and hemophiliacs before spreading to the general public. As they traveled from major cities in the US and Europe back to Haiti and the Congo, they were able to trace their footsteps back to the past.
In the words of virologist Dr. George Shaw, “It has proven indisputable” that the HIV-1 virus that now infects over 60 million people worldwide originated from only one transmission event between a chimp in West Central Africa and a human there (Cheng & Shahani, 2020). Next, the focus shifts to the political scandals and fear-mongering that surrounded the new virus under the Reagan administration. A raging public discussion erupted over efforts to contain the illness, which was then mostly affecting gay people and intravenous drug users. It chronicles how certain nations in Europe, Africa, and Asia discovered ways to curb HIV’s spread by implementing needle-exchange programs and major condom distribution campaigns, as seen in the documentary. Former AIDS Research Foundation president Dr. Merv Silverman argues that “politics has been a driving factor in this disease’s development” without elaboration. “AIDS is the most politicized sickness I’ve ever seen,” says the author.
The second session of “The Age of AIDS” starts by examining the gap that developed between the affluent and the poor with the introduction of the miracle HIV therapy “triple cocktail.”. AIDS no longer looked to be a death sentence when scientists found the cocktail in the mid-1990s. However, the hefty cost of the medications meant that patients in impoverished countries could not afford them. “The Age of AIDS” follows the political struggle in nations like Brazil to decrease these costs and exposes the terrible failure of the South African government to fight the epidemic that was overtaking the country.. read more.. Actor Zachie Achmat hails the new administration of South Africa for its commitment to racial equality. Astonishingly, it was shocked to see that this movement doesn’t at all care about our well-being and is willing to put us in the graves.
Aside from Russia, India, and China, the film also looks at some of the largest and most influential and strategically significant nations, and chronicles the same theme of government denial and political apathy that defined the AIDS pandemic in many other countries (Van, 2020). . As the UN-backed Global Fund and the Bush administration’s AIDS effort, greatly influenced by Bush’s evangelical Christian political backers, fought it out for funding in the poor world, global pressure was mounting.
There is still no scientific cure to the AIDS epidemic 25 years after the first cases were discovered. A vaccine for HIV is still years or decades away despite the billions of dollars spent on research, according to the majority of experts According to Dr. Ho, who first saw an AIDS patient as a young medical resident in Los Angeles in 1981, even if we find a cure or vaccine tomorrow, it would take years to execute all of these steps throughout the globe. “So it’s evident to me that I won’t be seeing the end of this pandemic,” he continues. As a result, my children can never witness the cessation of this pandemic. “
Many of the public health community’s old policies and procedures have to be abandoned in order to combat HIV/AIDS. In dealing with a disease that had a lengthy latent period, was mostly disseminated via sexual activity or intravenous drug use, and disproportionately impacted socially stigmatized populations, quarantine, mass obligatory testing, and contact tracing all had significant drawbacks. Community education and voluntary anonymous testing were advocated by representatives of the affected groups, notably the LGBT community. That’s why it became known as “exceptionality” since it varied from previous epidemics’ reactions. However, the public health strategy of choice for drug addiction prevention, smoking, and behavioral problems had already been established via mass education and other methods to behavior modification. As a result, HIV/AIDS sped up the acceptance of these methods and encouraged their widespread use in the treatment of infectious diseases. Additionally, the public health profession was forced to negotiate containment tactics with homosexual men, who were the first group to get infected.
Some components of the exceptionality strategy are being reevaluated and abandoned as the pandemic enters its second decade. As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, classic public health practices are being resurrected in modified versions. To some extent, the shift is attributable towards the existence of early treatment for those who have been infected. It might also be a consequence of the continuous movement of the pandemic itself towards less politically powerful communities, such as intravenous drug users and their sexual partners.
Reference
Cheng, J. F., Juhasz, A., & Shahani, N. (Eds.). (2020). AIDS and the Distribution of Crises. Durham, NC:: Duke University Press.
Van Hollen, C. (2020). 1. Birth in the Age of AIDS (pp. 5-36). Stanford University Press.
