idea so they formed the Task Force on Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections to figure it out. “By year-end, there [was] a cumulative total of 270 reported cases of severe immune deficiency among gay men, and 121 of those individuals [had] died,” AIDS.gov says. However, it wasn’t until September of 1982 that Congress introduced legislation to fund more advanced research. Congressmen Henry Waxman and Phillip Burton drafted and introduced legislation that earmarked five million in funds to the CDC and ten million to the National Institutes of Health for AIDS research. With AIDS still poorly understood and frequent media reports hawking the gay link, AIDS quickly became known as a ‘gay disease’. “Early media reports referred to it variously as a gay disease, gay cancer, or gay plague, and some health care providers and researchers informally labeled it ‘gay-related immune deficiency’ (GIRD), reflecting an initial assumption that it struck only gay men,” Gregory Herek and John Capitanio wrote in the American Behavioral Scientist, “Given the disproportionate impact of AIDS on the gay community, along with the prevalence of widespread negative attitudes toward homosexuality at the time, it was perhaps inevitable that AIDS would be defined in political and cultural terms as well as medically, and that many heterosexuals’ reactions to AIDS would reflect their attitudes toward homosexuality.” The ensuing stigma surrounding AIDS was detrimental to those living with HIV and many believe it initially slowed efforts to treat it and find a cure. “Dallas Buyers Club,” starring Matthew McConaughey, explores the stigma of the “gay disease” and the struggle to find life saving HIV medication in the 1980s.
McConaughey plays the role of Ron Woodroof, a real-life vehemently homophobic Texas rodeo cowboy and electrician, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1985. McConaughey’s character was told he had 30 days to live after his diagnosis. In addition to dealing with this devastating news he was also forced to deal with the powerful stigma of the “gay disease.” The movie doesn't shy from showing Woodroof’s old friends rejecting him because of his diagnosis and forcing him out of the life he once knew. Woodroof’s diagnosis came at the same time the FDA green lit Avonex’s AZT human drug trials. In the movie Woodroof tried to become a test patient; however, he wasn't selected. He saw it as a death sentence because he would only be granted access to the medication after it obtained FDA approval—which could take a decade. In true “Breaking Bad” anti-hero style, Woodroof refused to accept defeat and he took matters into his own hands by circumventing the laws. He found a disgraced American doctor living and practicing in Mexico that was willing to supply him with the medication cocktail he was searching for. However, he got more medication than he needed and he returned to America to sell the pills to other people not allowed in the AZT drug trial. Eventually Woodroof created the Dallas Buyers Club and sold memberships to people with HIV who were denied the experimental drug. According to the Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, Director of Health Human Services’ Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy, “Since those first five cases were reported in early June 1981, nearly 600,000 men, women, and children have died in the United States as a result of HIV disease, and globally, an estimated 30 million people have died of HIV-related causes.” However, HIV prevention, diagnosis, and treatment continues to exponentially
improve." Unlike Woodroof's experience in 1985, there is FDA approval of life saving medication today. But it can't help you if you don't have access to care or know your status. “In the industrialized nations of the world, including the U.S., survival following an HIV diagnosis has improved considerably with the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the mid 1990s. Between 1995 and 1998, AIDS deaths decreased sixty-three percent in the United States. Analysis of surveillance data from twenty-five U.S. states found that the average life expectancy after HIV diagnosis increased from 10.5 to 22.5 years between 1996 and 2005. But it’s not only in the treatment realm where we have seen remarkable advances in knowledge. Prevention science has, likewise, logged very impressive gains in the past three decades,” Dr. Valdiserri wrote in “Thirty Years of AIDS in America: A Story of Infinite Hope,” “Despite declines in reported AIDS cases and deaths since the first decade of the epidemic, CDC estimates that close to 1.2 million Americans are living with HIV, including some 230,000 with undiagnosed infection. And every year in America, nearly 17,500 persons with HIV die.” That means one in five people don’t know they have HIV. Our knowledge of HIV/AIDS has dramatically improved since 1981; however, we have to use this knowledge for it to benefit us. With the availability of rapid HIV testing and free HIV testing throughout Atlanta there is no reason not to get tested and to know your status. FENUXE suggests visiting Dr. John P. Ouderkirk or AbsoluteCARE in Atlanta. Dr. Ouderkirk has been serving our community for over twelve years and provides free HIV testing at Piedmont Avenue Health & Wellness (404.588.4680—735 Piedmont Avenue Northeast, Atlanta, GA 30308). AbsoluteCARE Medical Center and Pharmacy also provides HIV testing (404.231.4431—2140 Peachtree Road Northwest, Suite 232, Atlanta, GA, 30309). Honor World AIDS Day this Dec. 1 by learning your status.
FENUXE.COM : 15