Celebrate Diversity: World AIDS Day

In 1981, the first case of what was later determined to be AIDS appeared on the West Coast in the U.S. For much of the early history of AIDS in the U.S., it was thought to be a disease that only circulated among gay men (in fact, it was often called "gay cancer"), so the stigma attached to it meant many people went untreated (Linendoll et al., 2020).

According to HIV.gov (2020):

• Approximately 38 million people across the world were infected with HIV/AIDS in 2019. About 1.7 million of these were new infections, indicating a 23% decline in new infections since 2010.
• AIDS-related deaths peaked in 2004. Since then, there has been a 60% reduction in deaths; however in 2019, about 69,000 people worldwide still died from AIDS-related illnesses.
• The majority of infections occur in low- and middle-income countries.

The CDC (2020) provides the following statistics on HIV/AIDS in the U.S.

• In 2018, there were 37,968 new HIV diagnoses. The number of new infections varied according to age, race, sex, and sexual preference, but the largest number of new infections were among black/African American men engaging in male-to-male sexual contact while the smallest number of new infection was among white women engaging in heterosexual contact. The age bracket with the largest increase was 25-34 years old.

HIV is a pre-existing condition protected by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Also, under the ACA, insurance companies must cover HIV testing as a preventive service for people ages 15-65 and for people of other ages who are at an increased risk for infection (HIV.gov, 2020, "The Affordable Care Act").

The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was the idea of gay rights activist Cleve Jones. He wanted to add a visual and human element to the statistics of those who had died of HIV/AIDS at a time when the government wasn't responding to this virus.It was unveiled on October 11, 1987, at the National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights. At that time, it had 1,920 squares. It now has over 49,000 squares (Jones, 2016). Various portions of the quilt have since traveled throughout the country for display. 

In 2019, it was announced that the entire quilt would return home to San Francisco as part of the National AIDS Memorial (Gonzales, 2019). 

You can explore all of the quilt's panels on the National AIDS Memorial's Interactive AIDS Memorial Quilt website. 

AIDS Memorial Quilt on display in 2012. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.

Although it seems like the terms are used interchangeably, HIV and AIDS are not the same. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a virus that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV does not always progress to AIDS, however, according to Healthline (2020), because there is no cure for HIV, it will never go away even if AIDS does not develop.

HIV can also be diagnosed by a test, but AIDS is more difficult to diagnose because it depends on a variety of changes happening in a person's immune system as well as the onset of opportunistic infections.  

Learn more about the differences between HIV and AIDS at Healthline.

Guy Vandenberg, RN, is a nurse who was on the front lines of fighting HIV/AIDS in the 1908s at San Francisco General Hospital in ward 5B, the world's first hospital ward dedicated to HIV/AIDS patients. Vandenberg and his team cared for patients who were dying of AIDS-related illnesses at a time when little was known about HIV/AIDS and how it was contracted and spread. 

Learn more about Vandenberg at:

• Latimer (2019). Meet the nurses who cared for AIDS patients when no one else would.
• Linendoll et al. (2019). A nurse who cared for AIDS patients during the 1980s epidemic explains why the fight against the disease is just as important today.
• Johnson and Johnson Nursing (2019). Living the lessons of 5B with HIV/AIDS nurse Guy Vandenberg.

Guy Vandenberg and his husband, Steve Williams, at a protest in 1995. Photo from Johnson and Johnson Nursing.