 Human Immunodeficiency Virus ◦ Causes AIDS ◦ People with HIV can live with the virus without symptoms  HIV is a lentivirus ◦ Transmitted as RNA, integrated into DNA  Transmitted through bodily fluid ◦ Can be sexually transmitted, through blood, or through breastmilk

 Destroys blood cells that fight diseases ◦ CD4 ◦ T cells  Three stages of infection ◦ Acute infection ◦ Latency ◦ AIDS

 Final stage of HIV infection  Lower CD4 and T cell counts  Opportunistic infections

 No cure yet, only treatment ◦ Antiretroviral cocktail that increases latency period of HIV  The best option is prevention ◦ Safe sex ◦ No intravenous drugs or shared needles

 Non-human primate in Africa ◦ SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus)  Transferred to humans in late 19 th or early 20 th century ◦ Unknown cause, but possibly bushmeat  Spread to epidemic level in Africa ◦ Possible causes of spread:  Social changes caused by colonization/urbanization  Widespread unsterile injections in antibiotic era

 Thought to have come from Haiti  First cases emerged in the early 1980s ◦ Unusual cases of pneumocytosis pneumonia (PCP) in several homosexual men in Los Angeles ◦ Other opportunistic infections, like Kaposi’s sarcoma  Called other things first- “GRID,” “4H disease” ◦ GRID: gay-related immune deficiency ◦ 4H disease  Affected homosexuals, hemophiliacs, heterosexual intravenous drug users, Haitian immigrants ◦ First called AIDS in 1982

 Homophobia  Associated with risky behaviors ◦ Prostitution, drug use  People didn’t know what it was at first ◦ Thought it was more contagious  Stigma is unfair because of different modes of transmission ◦ What about kids born with it? Transmission through blood transfusion?

 Clip from “Philadelphia,” 1993  pQ pQ

 Movies, TV, Broadway ◦ “Philadelphia,” starring Tom Hanks ◦ RENT  Advocacy groups ◦ CARE ◦ AIDS United ◦ Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS ◦ (RED)

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