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HIV/AIDS was my disease for the semester. I would say the most revealing aspect of the disease was how far it had progressed over time. It has become manageable, and there are even tests that people can perform at home. Many people in the past did not even realize they had it and even neglected medical attention when they did, contributing to the disease's overall devastation. Moving on, the most surprising aspect was learning that the disease was initially discovered to be zoonotic, transferring to humans and mutating. Maybe many other people are already aware of this, but I personally have never considered its history because I was only focused on the effects it has now. Concerning the Padlet assignments, I possibly would have preferred an assignment involving clinical trials of the diseases. There were many trials for HIV/AIDS, and as a result of these trials, there was even more protest. It would have compelled us to look more into the disease's social consequences, which I like.

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As previously stated, HIV/AIDS had a detrimental effect on society as a whole. In simple terms, it broke under pressure. HIV/AIDS increased insecurity and exacerbated discrimination against the LGBTQ community. Patients were ignored or turned away. At one point, protests erupted over the use of placebos in clinical trials. People were in disarray, and others were dying in growing numbers. Fortunately, this is a historical effect that occurred many years ago. In this day and age, HIV/AIDS is manageable, and discrimination doesn't follow. It is not a taboo subject; it is a real issue that affects people outside of the LGBTQ community. Overall, I do believe society has learned from this experience, but that does not negate the many years when many people neglected to learn.

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As previously stated, when HIV/AIDs first emerged, there was little to no agency. For months on end, no one knew where it came from or how it spread. The CDC finally published a case definition in 1982, and by 1983, they had a good idea of who the vulnerable victims were. Despite this, people were dying, and discord was rapidly spreading. By 1985, the president had hosted the first conference on the topic of HIV/AIDS, calling for the establishment of a vaccine research center, which opened in 1999, nearly 20 years after its discovery. However, within the same timeline, many innovative methods were developed globally. Most prominently, at the 11th International Conference on AIDS in 1996, researchers introduced high-active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). This treatment required people diagnosed with HIV to take a combination of three medications every day, which later became the standard. This was a turning point for the disease, as death rates fell by 47% a year later. Years after, in 2002, the FDA approved rapid test kits for HIV, making the diagnosis even more accessible. All of those initiatives contributed to where we are today, and while HIV/AIDS is still prevalent, it is no longer a death sentence. Moving on to my personal opinion, although the United States did its best, arguably more could have been done. For starters, the disorganization resulted in discrimination, which lasted for years. Many places, including blood banks, prohibited gay men, believing they were the direct cause of the virus. These people were left with little to no assistance and were left to die because they did nothing to combat the homophobic stereotypes.

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Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a severe and often fatal immune-system disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that is transmitted through blood, particularly through sexual contact or contamination.

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As previously mentioned, Acquired Immune Deficiency (AIDS) was identified in 1981. There was a lot of disagreement in the healthcare community for years after that. They had no idea where it came from, and conspiracies were being thrown around, only adding to the stigma. This resulted in a slew of discrimination and increased death rates. Knowing this, I would say the initial reaction from the healthcare community was neglectful, to say the least. Despite a rocky start, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began trials in late 1986, distributing drugs in an attempt to combat the HIV infection causing AIDS. The administration initially focused on drugs such as, Saquinavir and ACTG 076, later developing combination therapy approaches in 1996. Detection prior to treatment has also improved over time. Antigen/antibody testing from blood or saliva is now available, as are nucleic acid tests (NATs) that detect viral load. We have also developed methods for detecting disease progression by counting CD4 T cell counts, as well as methods for determining the severity of viral loads and drug resistance. Since 2008, as the disease study progressed and public awareness grew, rates have remained stable.

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A virulent disease is one that poses a high risk of serious harm to the host, often resulting in death. Knowing this, I believe Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was an undeniably virulent disease in the past. Infection rates have remained high since its discovery, and hosts were said to only be able to live a few years after their diagnosis, so death rates were only intensifying. On the flip side of this, I do believe its virulence has changed over time. Historically, a diagnosis would normally be a death sentence, but this is no longer the case. With the development of science, we develop an understanding of this disease. Infections still persist today, but they are manageable. This is accompanied by lower mortality rates and a higher quality of life.

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The first case of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) was detected in 1981 starting at Los Angeles and moving toward New York City. The human immunodeficiency virus is directly responsible for the disease (HIV), as it was sexually transmitted. The disease was discovered to be a zoonotic, a disease transmitted from animal to human, but it has since mutated.

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Since its discovery, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) has spread virtually everywhere in the world. The spread has primarily targeted low-income countries such as Western and Central Africa, Asia, Central Europe, and North America. As mentioned last week, AIDS was first identified in the United States in 1981. Through research they discovered that the virus that caused this can be traced back to 1959 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1983, they discovered a large number of AIDS cases in Haiti and numbers were skyrocketing worldwide. Aids reached its peak in 1995, when nearly 50,000 people died that year as a result of the disease. There were still thousands of reports of transmissions in 2003, but along with treatment development, death has declined. There were only about 35,000 cases as recently as 2019. While it is not completely gone, it has become manageable. According to the World Health Organization, there has overall been 36 million AIDS-related deaths over the years, with 37.7 million people currently living with HIV/AIDS.