By Bara Vaida
While COVID-19 has been the focus of media attention over the past year, the HIV epidemic has continued its quiet spread worldwide.
June 2021 marks 40 years since the CDC first published a morbidity and mortality report about five men with pneumonia-like symptoms that are now known to have been caused by acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
It took several more years for scientists to determine the pathogen causing AIDS was the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and many additional years to determine HIV evolved from nonhuman primates. The CDC recently published a comprehensive history and context of the HIV and AIDS epidemic.
Since 1981, more than 75 million people globally have been infected with HIV and 32 million have died. There is still no cure for AIDS or a vaccine against HIV, but drug companies have developed antiretroviral (ART) therapies to both treat and prevent AIDS, making the disease a treatable chronic condition. Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men are among the most disproportionally affected groups in the U.S., according to the CDC. Around 1.2 million are living with the virus and about 34,800 cases of HIV were reported in the U.S. in 2019.
For reporters covering this story, NLGJA, the association of LGBTQ journalists, has produced this primer on reporting on HIV and AIDS that has important recommendations on how not to use stigmatizing words in stories.
AHCJ’s Heather Boerner also authored this set of recommendations in 2017 on how to be neutral and accurate in writing about HIV. She updated her tip sheet for covering HIV in 2019 and many of her resources are still relevant.
Several story ideas to consider are related to the ongoing racial gap among those with HIV:
- Blacks/African-Americans represent 13% of the U.S. populations but 41% of those with HIV.
- Hispanic/Latinos represent 18% of the population but 23% of those with HIV.
- White Americans are 60% of the population and 29% of those with HIV.
There are also demographic disparities among those who are getting preventive ART, as the CDC reported fewer African Americans and Latinos had suppressed viral loads (meaning low to undetectable viral levels) in comparison to White Americans.
The cost of treatment
The high cost of drugs to treat and prevent the development of AIDS is a worthy subject for reporting. Gilead Sciences, the producer of two drugs that have been shown to be successful in suppressing HIV viral loads, can cost as much as $2,000 a month — more than many can afford. Consumer groups like PrEP4All and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation have been fighting to push for lower HIV drug costs. There are also ongoing efforts and failures to develop an AIDS vaccine. (See also “After 40 years of AIDS, why we still don’t have an HIV vaccine.”)
Federal efforts to reduce the number of new HIV cases
President Biden requested that Congress approve spending of $670 million over the next year to increase access to treatment and prevention drugs and ensure those living with HIV have access to health services. The efforts would build on the Trump administration’s “Ending the HIV Epidemic”, which allocated funding to communities that had growing rates of HIV.
COVID-19
The pandemic had an impact on HIV incidence because it meant that fewer people had access to testing and treatment. However, Anthony Fauci, MD., head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said in May 2021 that the U.S. can still achieve its goal of ending the global HIV epidemic by 2030 despite the pandemic.
Hope and hype of a cure for AIDS
HIV can hang out in the body for many years without causing illness. In 2019, a cancer patient’s HIV was cleared from his body after receiving a stem cell treatment from someone who had a genetic mutation that leads to HIV immunity. The patient was the second to be clear of HIV after a stem cell treatment, inspiring hope for a path for a cure. But researchers were quick to caution that stem cell treatment is experimental, expensive and dangerous.
Additional resources:
- The CDC’s HIV website.
- Federal statistics and overview of the federal response to HIV.
- Medscape’s overview of HIV Infection and AIDS.
- Healthline’s HIV and Race: What’s the Connection?
- Kaiser Family Foundation: Comprehensive data and analysis on HIV/AIDS
- The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria – Co-founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a non-profit advocacy group that aims to end global epidemics.
- AIDS Healthcare Foundation – Global non-profit and advocacy organization
