And the Band Played On

About a month ago, my mom sent out an email with her thoughts on the 25 years that have passed since HIV was isolated. There's an article in Nature about it (which requires a subscription). [The first 'diagnosis' of AIDS/HIV came June 6, 1981.]

An excerpt from her email (my mom was the health coordinator for the school system and taught high school health):

"to think one of my professors in the school of Public Health had said, infectious disease has been conquered. You will work with chronic illness in your practice. Lucky they taught us how to manage diseases anyway. Looking back it was a fascinating sad time. I remember of my students (not known for his academics or for being a quiet kid) saying to a guest with HIV--"you let me know if anyone bothers you...I will take care of him." (the student was a high school karate champion). And another one who defied his family and took care of his aunt who had HIV after learning about it in health class. He could hardly read. I waived his exam."

Her email led to me putting the HBO movie And the Band Played On near the top of our netflix queue. We've been slow with our movie watching, so we just got around to it. I hadn't seen it in years, and Andy had never seen it. The movie chronicles the discovery of AIDS (originally called GRID or gay related immune disorder). It really is an entertaining and fascinating film (though I admit I am more interested in public health and epidemiology than some). I recommend checking it out if you haven't seen it (e.g., if you didn't have my mom for health in high school!). We've come along way in our understanding of AIDS since the early 80's but we certainly haven't conquered the disease. More than 33 million people have AIDS worldwide, and there still isn't a vaccine.