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To date, the AIDS epidemic that erupted in the 1980s is considered a gay history 101. It's a part of the history of our community that has seen some of our older members attend several funerals a week. the fear of catching the then unknown and unknown disease, and seeing fearful nurses who refused to deliver meals to HIV-positive patients. Medical and scientific knowledge and treatments have come a long way since then, but a vaccine or cure is still elusive – but recent developments have brought us closer at a glaring pace.
In September 2017, scientists at the National Institutes of Health discovered a special antibody that binds to three vital sites of the HIV virus. The antibody can attack 99% of HIV strains, a similar feat in 1% of HIV-infected patients. What makes the virus so difficult to heal and "pinpoint" is that it is constantly changing, allowing it to cross the barrier created by HIV antibodies.
However, the new antibody uses three attack on the microscopic battlefield inside the human body. Even if the virus managed to overcome a front through a new mutation, there would still be two more guardians to manage. And because the new antibody is a unique combination of three other antibodies, it is hoped that it will be approved by the Federal Drug Administration earlier, and that it can be used as a vaccine as well as a drug. 39, a treatment. With successful preliminary tests on the monkeys, the human trials are expected to begin this year.
Although innovative treatments, PrEP and combination therapy slowed the spread of HIV and made the virus less lethal, they also contributed (albeit inadvertently) to a sense of forgetfulness and even death. 39; inappréciation. Our community must remember that early treatments and medications were physically dangerous, abjectly ineffective, or both. The knowledge about HIV treatment and technology that we have today was not available in the 80s, which means that many homobadual men were basically tested subjects, those who suffered the many debilitating physical, emotional and mental effects of HIV
. t suggest that HIV is no longer a devastating and life-changing diagnosis; just that all of us in the community (as well as our allies) must make an effort to remember and continue to support our long-term survivors as well as the memories they carry from their peers. While it takes a lot of courage to talk openly about your baduality, it's undeniable that it takes even more courage to be open to HIV. There are certainly those who have educated themselves about what it means to be undetectable / untransmissible, but there are also individuals who always make HIV positive.
"Sankofa" is a word from the Twi language of Ghana, a dialect spoken by the Akan people, which translates as "going back and getting it." It is symbolized by a bird turned to the back to take an egg in his back. The basic concept of sankofa is that we must go back and recover the wisdom and knowledge of the past and bring it with us in the present as well as in the future and use it for manifest a positive change.
We can not afford to forget our gay history or the people, the events and the breakthroughs that brought us to where we are today. Even if the new antibody works and HIV is cured and an AIDS vaccine is created, it's unclear what "the next big thing" is hiding around the corner. But by pbading on the stories and the sense of community of our rainbow ancestors with us in our future, we are sure to be raised and soar, no matter what happens.
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