if HIV originally came from chimps who got it from eating a smaller monkey and it’s not transmitted by air etc like the cold. Why are we having such a hard time eradicating it in human hosts?
In: Biology
A lot of the answers here are scientific in nature, and the scientific aspects of the virus definitely make it harder than other viruses to handle. However, a key aspect of the HIV crisis is the fact that it was pretty much only queer men and intravenous drug users who first got the virus and these folks were generally considered expendable, so for years very little was done in terms of policy to stop the spread of the virus. More men died in New York alone during the AIDS crisis than in the entire Vietnam War, for example. At that time – a crucial point in the course of the epidemic – American policymakers in particular (but not exclusively) were avoiding addressing the problem entirely. It’s obviously hard to say how the trajectory of the pandemic could have been different if an adequate response had been made, but generally if significant action is taken to limit an epidemic at the onset, its effects can be mitigated significantly.
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