AIDS is a deadly disease that affects millions of people worldwide. Its full name is acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. This is a disease of the immune system caused by the HIV virus. Those infected are ultimately killed by illnesses they get from having a weakened immune system. This disease is spread through bodily fluids, primarily through sexual intercourse and blood transfusions. AIDS first invaded America in 1981, and soon became an epidemic. Several things could and should have been done to prevent its rapid spread. First of all, AIDS should have received more coverage in the news.
The press did not acknowledge the disease in 1981 when the first outbreak occurred, and it needed the most attention. TV stations wouldn’t cover stories on it, no one in Washington would discuss it and no one read the very few articles published about it in medical journals. There were no cases about it in the peer review. 25,000 people died from AIDS before President Reagan made a single speech on it. This was because people thought that homosexuals were the only ones affected. The only press that did cover it was the gay press who labeled it “the gay plague” giving this disease a bad reputation.
AIDS finally received coverage on the news when an outbreak occurred in Haitians in Miami leaving four dead, and also 11 new born babies died from it. This was after there had already been 285 U. S. cases and 119 deaths in 17 states. If more people had been aware of the disease from the start, more could’ve been done to stop it. AIDS should also have been acknowledged as an epidemic, which the FDA would not do. Also, the CDC and other researches should have gotten much more funding for AIDS research.
The CDC had practically no budget and therefore could not perform tests and research to the best of their abilities. Dr. Cruinan had to collect blood samples in a common hotel room in a bad neighborhood of San Francisco instead of a real lab. Their actual lab was barely functional with old, run down equipment in a tiny space. When President Reagan should have increased the Department of Public Health’s budget, he actually decreased it. Only $750,000 was given to AIDS research from the White House. The CDC could not prove any of their ideas because they did not have the funding to do the proper tests.
In addition, the CDC should have confirmed that AIDS is transmitted sexually in 1982. Instead, they gave people the impression that there was no proof of this. As a result, many people did not take the precautions they 5/6/13 should have to protect themselves from the disease. Also, the bath houses in San Francisco should have been closed because this was where the majority of people got AIDS. In 1982 there was an attempt to shut them down that failed. The houses were eventually closed in 1985, but in between that time thousands of gay men contracted AIDS in the bath houses.
Another very important thing that should have been done to prevent AIDS in America is that blood transfusions should have been more closely monitored. The New York blood center would not give a list of blood donors to the CDC. They should have done this so it could be proved that blood transfusions cause AIDS. Also, hospitals refused to spend money on blood tests to see if the blood banks were infected with AIDS. The FDA proposed a motion to require the screening of blood donations that was shot down.
If they had done this, contaminated blood could have been destroyed and lives saved. Also, many doctors didn’t tell people they had AIDS and gave people blood that they knew was contaminated. The number of transfusion cases quadrupled in eight months and 89% of hemophiliacs were affected. All blood should have been tested and all contaminated blood should have been destroyed.
As a result these statistics would be much lower. In 1985 they finally started testing blood. But this was only after 28,000 transfusions with AIDS had been given to patients. Most of this should and could have been avoided.
To continue, Dr.Gallo and the French should have worked together. Dr. Gallo tried to take all the credit for finding the AIDS virus. These two forces should have spent less time feuding, and more time helping each other. With their combined knowledge and skills, progress could have been made much faster in fighting against AIDS. In conclusion, AIDS is a horrible disease that created an epidemic through America. There are several things that could’ve been done to prevent such a rapid and widespread epidemic if people had put the health of others before their greed.