The Cry of the 20th Century: Humanity's Struggle against AIDS

Author: Shurui Chen, Nagoya University School of Medicine

Since the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first case of HIV infection in 1981, nearly 40 million people have died from the disease, which is the biggest nightmare in the field of human public health in the 20th century. Currently, there are still nearly 40 million HIV carriers in the world. Even if they can maintain the same life expectancy as ordinary people with drug intervention, it is still far from being able to eliminate the HIV virus in the body, that is, to obtain a medical cure.

Disaster of the century

American writer Randy Shilts wrote in his book The Cry of the Century: "What unites us may be half fear and half hope. But most importantly, we are together! We must fight back; we must be strong; we must prove to each other and to this indifferent world that we not only have looks, wisdom, talent and wealth, but also courage and a precious kindness." This story of AIDS is a non-fiction portrayal of the struggle of mankind against the disease. Since the discovery of AIDS, scientists have never stopped exploring drugs and vaccines, and every ordinary person who knows its dangers is also vigilant in preventing and controlling AIDS.

Shilts was one of the first American journalists to become aware of the AIDS issue in the 1980s. His reports were not only records of medical cases, but also involved various aspects such as politics and society. Combined with the social background of the AIDS epidemic in the United States, he explained to people why time is life in this great disaster of the century.

On October 2, 1985, the word "AIDS" became a household name in the Western world due to the death of actor Rock Hudson, but it took the United States too long to realize the danger of this disease. It took five years from 1980, when a single man was diagnosed with this strange disease that was unheard of at the time, to 1985, when it really attracted people's attention. During this period, the virus was rampant in the United States, and hundreds of thousands of Americans were infected with AIDS. During these five years, because medical and health institutions, scientific research, mass media and other institutions did not take the necessary measures, the fight against the virus can be said to be a loss for all people, and tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths were behind it.

Humanity’s Struggle: AIDS Becomes a Chronic Disease from a Terminal Illness

In 1985, the U.S. Congress allocated $70 million for AIDS research. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first commercial HIV blood test to detect HIV antibodies in the blood. That year, at least one case of AIDS was reported in every region of the world, marking the global spread of HIV.

In May 1986, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses officially named the virus that causes AIDS human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In the same year, the International Steering Committee for HIV/AIDS was established. The U.S. Surgeon General pointed out the important role of sex education and condom use in AIDS prevention.

In 1987, the World Health Organization formulated the first global AIDS prevention and treatment program, which not only raised public awareness of AIDS, provided technical and economic support for AIDS prevention and treatment, but also proposed to protect the rights of people infected with AIDS. The FDA approved the first antiretroviral drug, which was a key step in the history of human fight against AIDS. This drug, AZT, is still a key drug in the combination therapy for AIDS.

In 1988, the World Health Organization declared December 1st as World AIDS Day. At this time, the American people put pressure on the FDA through marches, demanding that HIV treatment drugs be approved as soon as possible.

In 1989, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pointed out that the main cause of death among AIDS patients is Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, which occurs after the immune system is destroyed.

In 1990, Chinese-American scientist David Ho proposed that the effective strategy to combat AIDS is to intervene as early as possible. This theory fundamentally changed the theory of AIDS treatment.

In 1996, David Ho reported his research results at the 11th International AIDS Conference - the famous "cocktail therapy". The drug resistance caused by single drug treatment made David Ho think of the combination therapy of antiviral drugs. The report showed that the "cocktail therapy" can suppress HIV to a level that is undetectable in plasma and semen, helping to maintain or even restore the body's immune function. After this, AIDS became a chronic disease that can be controlled and treated.

The current situation of the Chinese people

According to information provided by the Ministry of Health, the number of people infected with HIV in China exceeded 20,000 in 2019, and the number of reported infections increased by 37.3% over the same period in 2018, exceeding the 30% growth rate estimated by experts. The latest research also shows that people infected with HIV in China are mainly distributed in rural areas, young and middle-aged people are the main affected population, and intravenous drug injection is the main route of infection, accounting for 72.1% of the total number of reports.

Xu Hua, deputy secretary-general of the China STD and AIDS Prevention Foundation, said that although the spread of AIDS in China is still at a low epidemic level, it is worrying that young and middle-aged people account for 2/3 of the infected people, especially young people aged 16 to 19, who account for nearly 1/10 of the total number of infections.

To prevent infection, you should pay attention to: avoid promiscuous sex, use protective measures, avoid dangerous blood contact such as intravenous drug use, needle stick accidents, sharing razors, etc.

Last words

From a historical perspective, the discovery of AIDS was "accidental". We cannot be sure how the first HIV infection occurred, or whether it was transmitted from chimpanzees to humans. However, with the development and exploration of the earth by humans, the huge flow and migration of population, the rapid social changes, the increasingly open and free relations between the sexes, and other comprehensive aspects of urbanization, the "invasion" of AIDS on humans may be a kind of "inevitability" in the dark.

Since humans began to notice AIDS, it has been spreading like wildfire. Although the progress of modern science and technology has enabled us to rebuild our psychological defenses that were once destroyed by the disease, and related institutions and millions of researchers around the world are fighting day and night for the final victory, we should still understand that this battle concerning the fate of mankind may not end soon. The virus that once hid, struggled, and died in the dark corners of the jungle has brought great disasters and profound social problems to mankind in just a few decades.

May everyone be able to enjoy the embrace of their loved ones without fear, may the cries of the century be remembered, may we no longer hear virus disasters taking lives, and may the haze at the turn of the century finally dissipate.