HIV/AIDS Pandemic

The HIV/AIDS pandemic was one of the largest and most impacting pandemics of the 20th century. The notable part of this pandemic is that it is considered, at the time of writing, to be still active.

To find out about the HIV virus, and the syndrome that it causes, AIDS, click here.

HIV had and has a huge impact on many aspects of modern society. Economies were, and still are, heavily impacted by this virus. A difference between this pandemic and other viral pandemics is that people who contract the virus have no way (correct at the time of writing) to prevent themselves from developing AIDS. Unlike other viruses, this meant that once a patient contracts the virus, they are patients for life. They will always be HIV positive, and once this stage has been reached, will live with AIDS. This meant that the pandemic could not end once a community achieved immunity, unlike other viruses. As there is still no vaccine for HIV, this means that the pandemic, while not impacting most people's lives, is considered to be ongoing.

As of 2018, 37.9 million people globally had HIV/AIDS. There could be as many as 43.8 million people who have died because of their AIDS since the beginning of the pandemic.

One of the huge issues with the HIV/AIDS pandemic is that it did not affect everyone equally. As the most common method of transmission was from male to male, this meant that the gay community was heavily impacted by this disease. Some people labelled the virus as the 'Gay Plague', and some people suggested banning gays in order to control the disease.