World AIDS Day: Past, Present, Future

December 1 will be World AIDS Day. On June 5th 1981, the Centers for Disease Control published the first reports of a devastating new disease that would come to be known around the world as AIDS (1) The first World AIDS Day was held in the United Kingdom in December 1988. (2) I myself am personally invested in World AIDS Day and in The Names Project Foundation AIDS Memorial Quilt (3). I was diagnosed as HIV+ in 1991. I lost my partner, and many friends to AIDS.

I made three panels for the Quilt and volunteered for the Dallas Chapter of the Names Project 1996-2004. I was chair of the Dallas chapter for its last two years of existence. The AIDS Memorial Quilt was begun by Cleve Jones between 1985 through 1987 (4). Cleve Jones remained on the board of The Names Project until ca. 2003, when he was removed from the board. After a two year court battle, Cleve Jones recovered 280 pieces of the original Quilt, formed a new non-profit organization, and named two new persons to the Names Project board of directors in a 2005 decision (5) (6). The years I volunteered for the Dallas Names Chapter of the Names Project were tumultuous. I volunteered with its long time chair from 1996-2000 when he decided to step down and close the chapter. I contacted The Names Project expressing interest in saving the Dallas chapter and found I was not the first to contact them. In an organizational meeting in 2000, we appointed a new chair and organization of volunteers. As the next four years progressed, the number of volunteers dropped, the chair stepped down, I became chair, and in the end I was the sole volunteer, scheduling and setting up Quilt displays on my own. Towards the end of 2004, national headquarters called me and informed me that they were closing the Dallas Chapter due to the fact that I was the last remaining volunteer and lack of continuing interest in keeping the chapter. During this time, the Names Project lost approximately half of the US chapters (6).

Why did the interest in the Dallas chapter decline from 1996-2004? The first reason was the introduction of the first HIV drugs besides AZT (7), namely the Protease Inhibitors, for the treatment of HIV+ patients in 1995 (8). AZT is a Nucleoside analog reverse-transcriptase inhibitor, which helps to prevent HIV from replicating its RNA into DNA in order to produce more HIV. The Protease Inhibitors help to prevent the HIV from forming its protein coat when it explodes from an infected white blood cell. Attacking HIV reproduction on two fronts significantly improved the survival rate of HIV+ patients. Other classes of HIV/AIDS drugs have been developed including Non-Nucleoside analog reverse-transcriptase inhibitors, Fusion Inhibitors which prevent HIV from attaching to white blood cells, and Integrase inhibitors which prevent the HIV DNA from integrating into the white blood cell’s DNA. With a “drug cocktail”, combining these five classes of drugs, they attack HIV at all stages of its life cycle: attaching to white blood cells, replicating its RNA as DNA, integrating into the white blood cell’s DNA, and forming its protein coat before the infected cell can burst (9). As a result, after 1995, the number of AIDS related deaths dropped significantly. Fewer people were making memorial panels for the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Consequently the numbers of people wanting to make panels, go to dedications, and observe World AIDS Day Quilt displays dropped.

Publications which had been regularly running AIDS death obituaries had fewer obituaries. There even came a historic day when the Texas weekly GLBT magazine printed an issue without an AIDS obituary. (6) When people stopped reading weekly or daily lists of AIDS related obituaries, the interest in HIV/AIDS began to decline. What had once been a disease, for which it was only a matter of time before someone died of AIDS; HIV/AIDS gradually became considered a controllable medical condition. For me, that is when I started to see a drop in attendance at Quilt displays and at World AIDS Day observances.

I am one of the lucky few. My doctor describes me as a “non-progresser”: my white blood counts are as high as a “normal” person and my viral load is undetectable. I will die of old age or some of my other health problems before I die of AIDS. As more and more people with HIV fall into this category, the public interest in HIV/AIDS decreases.

However, the AIDS crisis is not over. There are still people who are dying of AIDS related complications. It has become a worldwide pandemic. But, the US public has lost interest.
This year, and every year until a cure is found, find out what your community is doing to observe World AIDS Day. If you have never seen a portion of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, find out when a display will be in your area.

But above all, get tested for HIV. If you are positive, find a doctor to assess your health and start you on a drug regimen. If you are negative, learn more about how HIV is transmitted and protect yourself.
Until there is a cure, there will be a need for World AIDS Day.

The image used with this article is copyright free, in the public domain from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:World_Aids_Day_Ribbon.svg

1. More information on HIV/AIDS first occurrence can be found at:
http://www.thebody.com/content/art390.html Cathy Olufs, Women Alive, Spring 2001
2. More information of World AIDS Day can be found at:
http://www.worldaidsday.org/ National AIDS TRUST (UK), World AIDS Day.org, 2011
3. More information can be found about the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt at:
http://www.aidsquilt.org/ The Names Project Foundation, AIDSQuilt.org, 2010
4. More information can be found about Cleve Jones at:
http://clevejones.com/ no credits, c. 2011
5. Details of this decision can be found at:
http://www.poz.com/articles/1_2465.shtml staff, POZ Magazine, 12/15/2005, website c. 2011
6. I have been unable to find any documentation on the Internet for the decline in active chapters of the Names Project on-line. However, as an active volunteer, the last chair of the Dallas chapter of The Names Project, and a diarist, I have my own personal documentation taken between 1996-2004 of the problems with national and the local Dallas chapter. Cleve Jones was contacted for contribution of his recollection or a qoute regarding his release from The Names Project board of directors, but has not as of this date responed. The edtior of This Week In Texas was contacted, but in his response, he stated that he remembered the occassion when TWIT first released an issue without an AIDS related death obitituary, but he could not find the issue date to provide the issue.
7. More can be found about AZT at:
http://druginfo.nlm.gov/drugportal/ National Library of Medicine, c. 2011
8.More can be found about Protease Inhibitors at:
http://druginfo.nlm.gov/drugportal/ National Library of Medicine, c. 2011
9. More about all classes and action of HIV drugs can be found at:
http://www.aidsmeds.com/list.shtml AIDS MEDS + POZ, c. 2011 Smart +Strong


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