The United States stood stunned as the AIDS epidemic began to take its toll in 1981, with thousands of young men suffering horribly before gruesome death. Within two years the virus, ultimately called HIV, was discovered, and a test for infection was developed in late 1984. At the first major AIDS conference, held in Atlanta in 1985, Reagan’s Secretary of Health Margaret Heckler, neither a physician nor researcher, pronounced confidently that a vaccine would be available in two years – by 1987. Whether we should label that as naiveté or arrogance is up for grabs, but it’s clear that she was way off the mark. Unfortunately, that elusive vaccine still seems to be 10 or 15 years away.
Disspiriting news released last week suggests that 5.3 million people worldwide have been infected this year alone, with perhaps 40,000-50,000 of those in the United States. After 10 years of dramatic improvement in the 1980s, the number of new infections each year in the U.S. now has been stable for about a decade. What’s changing for us is that the epidemic is getting younger: previously, an estimated 25% of new infections were occuring at age 15-22; now that figure may be as much as 50%. Our inability to impact this hard-core pool of vulnerability is discouraging.
Lacking an injectible vaccine, the world – ourselves included – must rely on the “virtual vaccine” of safe behavior. Knowing about HIV and its transmission, then consistently making the safest choices possible – that’s our vaccine for now. Those choices aren’t always easy and are frequently not even consciously made, but our actions are our choices. Let’s stop the spread of HIV in Austin, in Texas, and in the United States: Be Safe!
This article appears in December 1 • 2000.