The AIDS Crisis

Presented By: Rita & Folashaday A.K.A. Honor

 What are AIDS & HIV?

● AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency

Syndrome.
● AIDS is the condition.
● HIV is a virus that may cause a infection which leads to AIDS.
 What are the signs of AIDS?
● AIDS sometimes has NO signs or symptoms at all
● People with the virus who have no symptoms are able to spread the virus
unknowingly.
● Some people may develop Flu like symptoms between or during four to six
weeks of contracting the disease.
 What does HIV do?
● The virus HIV weakens a person’s ability to fight infections and certain
cancers.
● People with HIV develop AIDS when they get certain infections cancers, or
when their CD4 count is less than 200.

● CD4- Is a glycoprotein found on the surface of immune cells like T helper

cells, monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells.
 How is HIV transmitted
● HIV is transmitted through bodily fluids by a person who is infected with the
HIV virus.
● Such as blood, semen, vaginal fluids, breast milk, rectal fluids, and
pre-seminal fluids.
● Major ways that HIV is transmitted are by intercourse and sharing injection
equipment such as needles.
 How HIV can’t be transmitted

HIV CAN’T be transmitted through:

● Can’t be transmitted by Insect bites

● Can’t be transmitted by Toilet seats
● Can’t be transmitted by Hugging
● Can’t be transmitted by Sharing food
● Can’t be transmitted by Sweat
● Can’t be transmitted by Bathing
● Can’t be transmitted by Sneezes and coughs
The AIDS & HIV propaganda
● When the AIDS epidemic first began it mainly affected the gay community
which caused misinformation that aids affected people because of their
sexuality. Buv HIV can EVERYONE regardless of their background
● The government would not support campaigns that promoted or encouraged,
directly or indirectly, homosexual activities.
● Federally funded campaigns addressed people from all backgrounds. But also
used fear mongering techniques they caused fear but didn't tell you how

to avoid contracting

the virus
How did POTUS react to the crisis?
Regan at first didn't respond to the crisis but after getting bashed by activists
about his public silence on AIDS Reagan finally issued a executive order during
his second term that established the President’s Commission on the HIV
Epidemic, He also signed legislation that increased funding from the government
on research and education on HIV & AIDS to 500 million before it was 12 million.
White House Press Secretary’s response on the
crisis
At a press briefing Lester Kinsolving asked Press Secretary Larry Speakes
“What’s AIDS?”

Speakes responds “It’s known as the ‘gay plague,’ ”

Speakes continues to respond with jokes like calling Kinsolving gay but he later on
admitted that the nobody in the white house knew anything about the epidemic.
 HIV Testing
● In 1984 researchers found the causes of AIDS & HIV.
● The FDA created the first commercial test for HIV in 1985.
● The tests test for HIV in your blood, saliva, and urine.
● HIV is detected faster through blood because it has higher levels of
antibodies.
Protests
 Sources
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/modern-us/1980s-america/a/
emergence-of-the-aids-crisis

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2015/12/01/reagan_press_secretary_laughs_
about_gay_people_dying_of_aids.html

http://www.tht.org.uk/sexual-health/About-HIV/How-HIV-is-transmitted/Ways-HIV-i
s-not-transmitted

http://www.constantinereport.com/ny-times-richard-nixon-drug-addict/

https://www.history.com/topics/history-of-aids
 Sources
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