In the mid to late 1980s, the United States was gripped by what seemed like an uncontrollable fire. HIV and AIDS was ravaging communities at an unprecedented rate. During the ‘80s in the U.S. alone, more than 90% of those diagnosed with HIV ultimately passed away from complications related to the disease - all but guaranteeing a certain death for any person unlucky enough to contract the virus.
To watch or listen to news coverage in the latter half of the 1980s in America was to become familiar with HIV and AIDS. What was relegated to the shadows of culture at the beginning of the decade was thrust into the limelight when actor Rock Hudson announced in 1985 that he had been diagnosed with AIDS. He would pass away within the year, ushering in the swarm of mainstream media attention and resources with which the United States would fight the AIDS epidemic in the decade that followed.
In 1987, the first antiretroviral drug (or ARV) was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Over the next several years, research would show that strict adherence to ARVs would suppress the virus to the point where it would be undetectable in the blood of an HIV+ person, and in the following decades, mortality rates for people diagnosed with HIV in the United States would invert itself, so that only a small percentage of those diagnosed with HIV would ultimately succumb to complications from AIDS.
Except for the rare occasions when a new therapy is announced or a celebrity tests positive, we don’t see much about AIDS in the news in the U.S. anymore. In fact, when we talk about CARE for AIDS to those who are unfamiliar with our work, we’re often asked if HIV is even a problem anymore.
While any preventable disease that takes the life of any human being is inherently a problem, the story of HIV/AIDS is much different in East Africa than it is in America. It’s important to contextualize the history of what we have traditionally perceived as the AIDS epidemic, so that we can understand our place in its future.
What is AIDS?
Simply put - AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is the condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. HIV is a virus contracted through certain specific bodily fluids and is generally spread sexually, via contaminated blood transfusions, or in the case of infants, through breastfeeding. HIV does not directly cause the symptoms that will ultimately lead, if untreated, to death. Rather, it attacks the body’s immune system - specifically the T cells, which are the body’s defenses against foreign organisms, such as virus-infected cells. By hijacking the immune system, HIV essentially tears down the fortress that surrounds the body, leaving it open to invaders.
Scientists believe that the source of HIV is a type of chimpanzee native to Central Africa. Over time, a virus unique to this species called simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) mutated so that it could be transmitted to humans, and found its new host when these chimpanzees were hunted for meat - causing humans to come into contact with infected blood. There is evidence that HIV in humans has existed since as far back as the late 1800s.
When a person is infected with HIV and doesn’t receive treatment, the disease will generally progress in three stages, commonly referred to as acute infection, clinical latency, and finally acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS.
In the acute infection stage, a person who is infected with HIV will often develop a flu-like illness within a few weeks of being exposed to the virus. This natural response to infection signals that the carrier has a large amount of virus in their blood, also referred to as a high viral load. In this stage, a person who is HIV-positive is very contagious.
The clinical latency stage, also sometimes called asymptomatic or chronic infection, is characterized by an active but slowed reproduction of HIV within the body, often meaning that someone in this stage of the virus displays no symptoms while remaining contagious. During the clinical latency stage, those who strictly adhere to an antiretroviral therapy regimen can achieve viral suppression, a viral load so low that they have effectively no risk of transmitting HIV to others. If left untreated, this stage will eventually progress to the most severe phase of infection - acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS.
A person with AIDS possesses an immune system that is so weakened that it can increasingly not fight off the opportunistic infections that occur in the body. Infections commonly including meningitis, toxoplasmosis, tuberculosis, and cancers move into the body quickly and devastatingly, taking advantage of a weakened immune system and ultimately overwhelming the depleted body, resulting eventually in death.
Why Do We Care?
In the United States and other parts of the developed world, it is understood and generally accepted that with strict ARV adherence, a person infected with HIV can live a long and healthy life. As a result, we no longer view HIV and AIDS as the unstoppable monster we once did, and for all intents and purposes have ceased to engage in meaningful conversations around its eradication. In the developing world, however, another narrative exists. Ineffective communication around the disease early on led to a high level of stigma that still plagues communities to this day. Coupled with a lack of education about the disease and how it’s transmitted, especially among those living in poverty, a higher prevalence of infection coupled with the shame associated with stigma means that just a decade ago, nearly 57,00 people died of AIDS-related illnesses in Kenya alone. Globally, there are still 2 million new infections every year, resulting in a million deaths. We are far from defeating HIV and AIDS.
The global AIDS epidemic is still raging in East Africa. But CARE for AIDS believes that with a holistic form of transformative care, a person living with HIV can turn what has historically been a death sentence into an opportunity for hope. We exist to empower people to live a life beyond AIDS. We want you to join us.