Kenneth Kaunda spoke out about HIV when African leaders would not even acknowledge its existence. He sang about it, too, in a 2005 album that made a splash, then vanished. And so a search began.
Women in a Kenyan village had a radical idea to stop the practice of trading sex for fish to sell: What if they owned their own boats? They had great success. Then came a series of terrible setbacks.
As the first Black transgender woman to serve in this capacity, Tori Cooper says she is eager to advocate on behalf of all transgender and non-binary people living with HIV.
Tuesday on Political Rewind: It has been 50 years since Atlanta’s first gay pride parade kicked off on Peachtree street in Atlanta. It was a small but momentous event. At the time, homosexuality was illegal under Georgia law, and members of the queer community typically lived lives in the shadows. But on June 27, 1971, marchers in Atlanta demanded an end to persecution and marginalization.
Tuesday on Political Rewind: Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2019, a massive mobilization began across governments across the world. Public health officials released safety guidelines and news organizations ran thorough coverage. But when HIV/AIDS was first identified almost 40 years ago, the response was tragically different.
In rural Scott County, Ind., hundreds of people got HIV from sharing dirty needles. Now the syringe exchange widely credited with containing the outbreak is under political pressure to shut down.
Experts fear steep declines in testing and diagnoses mean more people will contract HIV and die of AIDS. The problem is particularly acute in the South, the epicenter of the nation's HIV crisis.
Syphilis cases in California have contributed to soaring national caseloads of sexually transmitted diseases. Experts point to the advent of dating apps, decreased condom use and an increase in meth.
People were dying of a disease that could be treated — but in poor countries, they did not have access to medicines that could help. That was the story of HIV — and now of COVID-19.
The administration is in its early days, but the infectious disease expert says he's encouraged by the new president's attitude about the pandemic. Science, Fauci says, is "going to rule."
The No. 1 and 2 causes of death remain the same, but there have been a number of notable changes. And now there's a new disease to assess on the global landscape: COVID-19.
In "Love, M.," the joyful, complicated, intimate long-distance connections shared by mothers and sons during the AIDS epidemic are front and center. Playwright Clarinda Ross says the letters and voicemails in the play mirror the state of our own connections in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The drugs only need to be taken a few times a year — and may soon be available in many parts of the world. Patients say they are more convenient and less stigmatizing.
The coronavirus pandemic feels eerily familiar to people who faced the AIDS crisis. It triggers memories of confusion over how the disease is transmitted and huge numbers of people dying quickly.
