"Aids has always been laden with political and emotional volatilities. The possibility of blood or sex based transmission combined with its first emergence among marginalised and criminalised populations created a potent mix of primal terror and terrifying prejudice. It can sometimes be difficult to remember just how potently misinformation, fear and outright hostility framed the knowledge and experience of Aids in the first decade or so of the pandemic."
"In Australia in the 1980s it was an easy slide from epidemiological concentration among gay men, sex workers and IV drug users to moralising approbation and discrimination. Some parliamentarians and church leaders in Australia even suggested the forced imprisonment of anyone who tested positive for HIV. Today in Africa shame and morality combine in a different way. Over half the global population of those living with HIV and Aids are found in southern and central Africa, where prevalence among adults in some countries"
AIDS carried intense political volatility. Early uncertainty about blood- and sex-based transmission and emergence among marginalised groups produced terror and prejudice. Medical knowledge remained limited and a positive HIV test often signified a terminal diagnosis. In 1980s Australia concentration among gay men, sex workers and IV drug users shifted into moralising discrimination, with leaders suggesting forced imprisonment. Over half of people with HIV live in southern and central Africa, where prevalence exceeds 10% in some countries and heterosexual transmission predominates, making younger women vulnerable. World Health Organization created World AIDS Day on 1 December 1988 to counter shame, stigma and misinformation; queer communities used it for memorialising.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]