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A Short History of HIV/AIDS

We do not know how many people developed AIDS in the 1970s, or in the years before. Nor do we know where the AIDS virus HIV originated.

We do know: The dominant feature of this first period was silence, for HIV was unknown and transmission was not accompanied by symptoms salient enough to be noticed. Rare, sporadic case reports of AIDS and sero-archaeological studies have documented human infections with HIV prior to 1970, but available data suggest that the current pandemic started in the mid to late 1970s.

By 1980, HIV had spread to at least five continents (North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia). During this period of silence, spread was unchecked and approximately 100,000 — 300,000 persons may have been infected.

In 1982 US health officials described a new disease known as AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and in 1984 HIV was identified as the cause of AIDS.

More than 2000 people attended the first international Conference on AIDS held in Atlanta in 1985. The three major topics of discussion were the new HTLV-III/LAV test, the situation with regard to AIDS internationally, and the extent of heterosexual transmission.

Some experts were skeptical that AIDS would spread as rapidly among heterosexuals as it had among homosexuals. Yet other experts, taking their cues from data emerging from preliminary studies from Africa showing equal distribution among males and females, were less sure. Immediately after the conference, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened an international meeting to consider the AIDS pandemic and to initiate concerted worldwide action.

In 1989, predictions of 10 million infections, mostly in Africa, were dismissed by the medical AIDS establishment as alarmist. Seven years later, experts predicted 40 million. Now there seems little that will stop the number from reaching 100 million! This is more than five times the number who have died in the previous two decades. The vast majority of these will be in Africa.

Africa’s HIV/AIDS problems are huge. The spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa is a result of, but not exclusive to:

• The deprivation trap as a result of poverty
• Government policy
• Low status of women in the society

The poor are trapped in a cycle of poverty and as a result suffer disadvantage and marginalization. The cycle is sometimes referred to as the deprivation trap, with five clusters of disadvantage — poverty, physical weakness, isolation, vulnerability, and powerlessness.

The starting-point is the poor household. Families are generally large, consisting of many children, as well as the aged and disabled.

Families have too little money to provide adequately for basic needs. Malnutrition is rife, leading to poor performance in school and lower labour output. As most of these households live in rural areas, they are isolated from social infrastructure such as transportation routes, schools, and medical facilities. Landlords and traditional authorities can also make households vulnerable.

These families live from hand to mouth. If the father dies or is absent, survival becomes even tougher. The mother must find work and the children are left in the care of the elderly or without care at all. The household may also be powerless against those they rely upon for their livelihood. These families have no ability to influence policy decisions that would improve their well being.

Many have observed that this deprivation trap is one of the biggest determinants in the spread of HIV:

• HIV/AIDS is not a major priority in situations where basic survival is a daily battle.
• Knowledge about HIV and how to prevent it is lacking. When there is no access to the structures that provide the education, such as schools or clinics, this knowledge gap cannot be easily bridged.
• In general health is poor so the virus is more easily transmitted throughout the community.
• Access to medicines and basic healthcare is denied. It is widely accepted that Anti- Retroviral Treatment (ART) given at the appropriate stages of the illness along with improved nutrition and administration of complimentary medicines would greatly reduce the number of HIV positive people developing AIDS.

The low status of women in the society allows them to be exploited and abused. Of the 3000 maternal deaths reported in South Africa in 2001, the leading cause was HIV/AIDS. Women with HIV also transfer it to their babies so the cycle doesn’t break. AZT or Neverapine administered to mothers and infants at birth would greatly reduce the transfer of HIV from mother to babies but the government has not and will not make this drug available.

The HIV/AIDS crisis world wide is great. The HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa is overwhelming. How can we help? With so much need, what can one person or even one church do to make a difference?



The Outreach Committee has spent a lot of time discussing how we at Maple Grove can make a difference. In February of 2003, during Outreach Month, the committee presented information about HIV/AIDS to the congregation. Brenda Zimmerman told us about an effective programme in South America, the committee set up displays in the gym to educate us all, and as a congregation we sent a petition to Ottawa urging the government to remember their budget commitments to the fight against HIV/AIDS around the world.

Now we have the opportunity to make a real difference — not to everyone with HIV/AIDS — but to one family whose lives have been affected very personally by HIV/AIDS: our Action For Aids project.