What has notably changed over time and what has stayed the same?
Ignorance and the lack of information on HIV/AIDS is the major root of the current changes we have on the virus. With doctors finding more information and the society having access to the information on the Virus many myths and misconceptions has been broken down. The initial idea of what the disease was is different from what we know now. In this paper, we look at some of the notable changes that have occurred and what things have stayed the same concerning the virus.
One thing that completely changed is that HIV is a gay disease. When the virus was first discovered, the only infected people were gay men .In America, the issue began to be politicized and religious leaders started claiming the disease was caused by gayism which was against Gods initial plan of man and woman relationships. The notion of the virus being a gay disease was refuted in 1981 when there was discovery of similar symptoms of the virus in a child. The child who was only eight months had undergone a blood transfusion with one of the donors having the virus. The myth that gay people were the only ones getting infected was completely dissolved when patients with similar symptoms were discovered in Congo with women being among the infected.
While the gender of those infected changed, the opportunistic diseases that came with the virus remained the same over the years. The virus was known to weaken the immune of those that acquired it making them targets for other diseases. In the beginning of the discovery of the virus, the patients had pneumonia and respiratory diseases. The same diseases attack people who contract the disease today. In most cases of patients with HIV today, most people die of the opportunistic diseases and not the virus itself. The respiratory diseases have mostly evolved to include tuberculosis. Opportunistic diseases are here to stay since the people with the virus have a weak immune.
In the current age and era ,it is interesting to know that the origin of the virus, in central Africa, the people still do hunting. The HIV virus came from chimpanzees that were hunted by the people. The hunting included butchering the animal and therefore there was blood to blood contact. The hunting in Africa still continues to date as a source of livelihood for communities that live close to the forests. Beatrice Hahn made the discovery of the specific chimpanzee that caused the virus. The chimpanzee continues to be hunted in Central Africa.
Discrimination has however changed over time. The stigma surrounding the disease has overwhelmingly changed drastically. When the disease started to spread and people got wind of it, children with the disease were chased out of schools and in Florida a house was burnt down. The police also wore rubber gloves to arrest people so as not to contract the disease. The stigma and discrimination has changed as people now have better information on the virus. The myth that the virus spread through routine contact was demystified. People who get the disease are able to get access to medication and interact with others freely .The discrimination and stigma around the virus died and society changed to a caring one.
The virus just like any other started with less information about its existence which is dated back to 1930 yet discovered in the 80s .The more the disease is with us the more people have found ways to accommodate the people that have it and ways to reduce more infections. The measures are put in place through access to information by people. The more research is done, the more we evolve and change but some things are bound to remain the same.