Perfect case of Betteridge’s law of headlines. No, the AIDS pandemic is not ending. Almost nobody has access to this level of care and that will not change until we fix some other things (you can all see my home instance lol). But this is promising for our understanding of the virus and the human body as a whole, so it’s not sensationalism, just overly optimistic.
Yeah the unfortunate reality is that the current status of aids is that it didn’t need to be a problem even despite not having a cure or vaccine. For proof look at the American gay community. We don’t really have much of an hiv problem outside of our poorest portions. Basically every slutty middle class gay man in America is on prep or knows to take pep if exposed. Condoms are widely used. Those with HIV often are able to prevent it from progressing to aids and to keep their viral loads below transmissible levels. And we’re on the verge of an HIV vaccine. Gonorrhea is a bigger problem.
But in many countries the meds that keep this scourge under control are hard to access at best. My biggest hope here is that some health organization buys out the patent on this drug and goes full Jonas Salk with it. We needed it 40 years ago in America, but now here it’s nice to have for most. In Africa it’s desperately needed precisely because of the reasons it won’t be accessible. Hiv needs the smallpox treatment.
Perfect case of Betteridge’s law of headlines. No, the AIDS pandemic is not ending. Almost nobody has access to this level of care and that will not change until we fix some other things (you can all see my home instance lol). But this is promising for our understanding of the virus and the human body as a whole, so it’s not sensationalism, just overly optimistic.
Yeah the unfortunate reality is that the current status of aids is that it didn’t need to be a problem even despite not having a cure or vaccine. For proof look at the American gay community. We don’t really have much of an hiv problem outside of our poorest portions. Basically every slutty middle class gay man in America is on prep or knows to take pep if exposed. Condoms are widely used. Those with HIV often are able to prevent it from progressing to aids and to keep their viral loads below transmissible levels. And we’re on the verge of an HIV vaccine. Gonorrhea is a bigger problem.
But in many countries the meds that keep this scourge under control are hard to access at best. My biggest hope here is that some health organization buys out the patent on this drug and goes full Jonas Salk with it. We needed it 40 years ago in America, but now here it’s nice to have for most. In Africa it’s desperately needed precisely because of the reasons it won’t be accessible. Hiv needs the smallpox treatment.