Did You Know?
story by Donna Tracy, Communication Coordinator, HopeHealth
More than three decades have passed since AIDS first captured global attention and put a name to the epidemic that terrified communities. No one knew what was causing AIDS. No one knew how it was transmitted. Task forces set out to determine risk factors. Specialized treatment clinics opened. Congressional hearings were held. Legislation for research was drafted. And people continued to die.
In May 1983, researchers discovered the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, that destroys immune cells, known as CD4 T lymphocytes or CD4 cells. Healthy individuals typically have 500 to 1,600 of these cells in a single milliliter of blood. Below 200, the HIV infection has progressed to AIDS. At this point, the virus has so weakened the body that opportunistic infections and cancers can rapidly take hold.
An AIDS diagnosis in the 1980s was a prognosis for death. Available treatments were harsh on the body and required a rigid regimen that included a minimum of 18 pills per day. For many, it also meant rejection from and abandonment by their communities and families.
Today, much has changed, both in prognosis of the disease and in treatment, and an individual diagnosed with HIV and in compliance with their treatment plan can expect to live a full, typical life. The development of rapid HIV testing allows for fast, accurate HIV-status test results without a specialized clinical setting, and improvements in medicine has reduced treatments plans to a single pill a day. These pills are a combination of three medicines from more than 20 drugs, including antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, in about eight classes. Each attacks the HIV virus in different ways and the specific combinations prescribed to an individual are based on a genosure test that determines their specific HIV strain’s drug resistance.
Even though treatment for HIV/AIDS has come so far, access and awareness remain hurdles for many communities. To combat the fear and stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS, World AIDS Day was established in 1988 with a three-fold goal: to unite communities, to celebrate and support people living with HIV/AIDS, and to honor the more than 35 million people who have lost their lives to the disease. World AIDS Day is held Dec. 1 each year to bring awareness about the disease and HopeHealth commemorates the day with the annual AIDSWalk in Florence.
HopeHealth was established in 1991 as a grass-roots support group to help those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and combat the fear and stigma surrounding the disease. HopeHealth continues to organize awareness events to increase the dialogue about HIV and AIDS, decrease stigma, and provide support to individuals living with the disease. Our Infectious Diseases Department works closely with our community health programs to allow for coordinated care across specialties, including pain management, substance abuse, dental care, mental health, and primary care.
Open conversation on the HIV epidemic still has a long way to go, especially in southern states, which, according to the CDC, have the highest number of people living with HIV and account for 44 percent of all people living with HIV in the US. Nationwide, more than 1.2 million in the US are living with HIV infection and, of those, one in eight (150,000) do not know they have the virus.
The fastest growing population rates for HIV infection is young men having sex with men, and college age kids.
• HIV has claimed more than 35 million lives globally since 1981.
• In 2015, 1.1 million people died from HIV-related causes globally.
• There were approximately 36.7 million people living with HIV at the end of 2015.
• 2.1 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2015 globally.
• There is no cure for HIV infection. Effective antiretroviral (ARV) drugs can control the virus and help prevent transmission.
• With effective treatment, people with HIV can enjoy healthy, productive lives.
• Global estimates indicate only 54% of people with HIV know their status.
• Between 2000 and 2015, rates of new HIV infections fell by 35%, and AIDS-related deaths fell by 28%.
• Expanding ARV to all people living with HIV and expanding prevention choices can help avert 21 million AIDS-related deaths and 28 million new infections by 2030.
• In South Carolina, 20.7 people per 100,000 are living with HIV and the lifetime risk of being diagnosed with HIV ranks 10th in the nation
• Columbia, South Carolina, ranked 13th in the nation for highest infection rates per capita
