Amid the global Covid-19 pandemic, HIV health experts, survivors and long-time activists are reflecting on the early and undeniably dark days of the Aids crisis.
Several of them spoke about the parallels between the onset of the two public health outbreaks and the lessons learnt four decades ago.
HIV and coronavirus are very different viruses in terms of contagion and lethality. However, for both, early decisions by government officials and the public affected how the outbreaks became global pandemics.
One example was the cavalier attitude displayed by individuals in the earliest days of the crises on their chances of contracting the virus.
Jones, a close associate of gay icon Harvey Milk before the latter’s assassination in 1978, stressed how very difficult it was at first to tell other young gay men in San Francisco that there was a deadly virus spreading in their community and they had to change their behaviour.
Refusal to properly reckon with the risk of contracting a new virus stands out in this pandemic.
People are still shaking hands and waiting for the police to remind them to avoid gatherings and maintain social distance.
Gay urban men, one of the first communities in which HIV/Aids emerged, were among the first to receive scientific information that would help them to modify their behaviour based on facts, not fear.
Thanks to community action, gay men were among the first to receive information about condoms reducing the transmission of HIV. Eventually, behaviour modification caught on and slowed the spread of HIV.
Initially, people thought HIV was airborne or could be spread through surfaces like Covid-19. Even medical professionals were afraid to be in the same room with an infected person.
But through relentless pursuit of factual information, they knew HIV is contracted primarily through sex.
Now, however, with limited and conflicting information about coronavirus, HIV experts say they feel the same generalised anxiety that struck many in the early years of the Aids pandemic.
While safe sex was, at first, the leading behaviour modification to stem the spread of HIV, social distancing is the recommended way to flatten the Covid-19 curve.
Widespread anxiety and fear do not result in superior health outcome. People need proper information and an atmosphere conducive to collecting that information.
At the height of the Aids crisis, it took years before people had the correct information needed to protect themselves from the virus.
However, for Covid-19, people were informed early about the precautionary measures. This includes washing hands regularly with running water and soap, or using an alcohol-based hand sanitiser, maintaining social distance, sneezing or coughing into the inside of the elbow, or using a disposable tissue, and avoiding touching the face.
We, too, can flatten the Covid-19 curve, just like the Chinese.
