The United States is once again facing a pretty serious AIDS epidemic. Some of the top researchers who tracked and promoted AIDS awareness in the 1980s have noted a disturbing new trend and once again are trying to get Americans to pay attention. AIDS is back.
The Return of an Epidemic
Of course AIDS never went away, but it did fall from the media spotlight in the United States. After all, there were fewer cases that we heard about, everyone was aware of it, and those who unfortunately did contract the disease had plenty of medical options that helped them keep full-blown AIDS away for years or even decades. Even then, while there is no cure for AIDS, it seemed a manageable disease.
So why is it back? The short answer is because Americans, particularly young homosexual males, just didn’t really think about it anymore. In the 1980s, the gay male population was devastated by the disease. Almost every gay male or those who ran in the same social circles knew a friend or lover who had contracted HIV and eventually died from AIDS.
The New AIDS
The disease of 2007 is no difference from the disease of the 1980s. But the treatments are different. Few young people know anyone who’s died of AIDS. Those that do have it simply treat it with a medical regime. There is no cure for AIDS, although many researchers are working hard to find one. But there are a plethora of pills and treatments that can help keep the disease at bay while the HIV positive individual goes on living a seemingly normal life.
That normal life is what lets the new generation of young men, and in many cases women, relax. After all, many of them reason, what’s the worst that can happen? They’d have to take some drugs?
Living with AIDS
Unfortunately, what many of these kids don’t realize is that living with AIDS is more than a few extra vitamins in the morning. The health routines of those who are HIV positive are daunting, and the disease is permanent. It will eventually contribute to your death, especially if it is not managed effectively at early stages.
The scariest part of the new epidemic is how few people realize that they are in fact already living with the disease. 10% of men 15-29 years of age have sex with infected men. But more than 67% of those infected have no idea that are carrying (and spreading) the disease. Worst of all? More than 60% of those who already have AIDS think they are at low risk for getting it in the first place.
The Solution
There is no magic solution to this rise of AIDS, but the same efforts that helped stem the tide in the 80s can help again today. Leaders in the gay male community need to step forward and begin warning and educating young mean about the risks – again. Hopefully the tides can be turned before the warnings start to come from those who have become infected and whose lives are now seriously at risk due to lack of treatment.