HIV/AIDS history through the pages of Out Front
AZT was helpful – but far from a magic bullet, and it would be another decade before new medications could reliably turn HIV infection into a chronic, long-term illness. In the mean time, infections would continue to rise dramatically, to a cumulative total of over 1.1 million reported HIV infections in the U.S and 10,198 in Colorado by 2010 – with a death toll of more than half a million nationwide, more than 5,000 in Colorado and 24 million in the world.
Yet the virus that causes AIDS was finally recognized, and its transmission was beginning to be understood – meaning that workers and activists could reach out with education, research new treatments and work on treatment and cures. While fear remained, the uncertainty was over, and for those dealing with HIV risk and friends and acquaintances suffering from the disease, there was hope.
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It’s interesting to see this through the eyes of Out Front, even more startling is a conference for a now defunct group People With Aids (PWA) whose Denver Conference (1983) established principles for Aids patients. Among the Denver Principles was the Rights section which guaranteed HIV privacy, non-discrimination, living and dying with dignity, and full and satisfying sexual and emotional lives. In a day in which the death sentence has been removed for HIV, we should now remove the stigma.