AIDS In The USA

i’m not sure but i reckon in 1939

South Africa has had a turbulent past, and this history is relevant to the explosive spread of HIV in the people.

1980s – In 1985, a State of Emergency was declared in South Africa that would last for five years. This was a result of riots and unrest that had arisen in response to Apartheid, the system of racial segregation that had been in place since the 1950s. Apartheid prohibited mixed-race marriages and sex between different ethnic groups, and categorised separate areas in which different races lived. In the same year, the government set up the people’s first AIDS Advisory Assemble in response to the increasingly apparent presence of HIV amongst South Africans. The first recorded case of AIDS in South Africa was diagnosed in 1982, and although initially HIV infections seemed mainly to be occurring amongst gay men, by 1985 it was clear that other sectors of society were also affected. Towards the end of the decade, as the abolition of Apartheid started, an increasing amount of concentration was paid to the AIDS crisis.

1990 – The first national antenatal survey to test for HIV found that 0.8% of pregnant women were HIV-positive.9 It was estimated that there were between 74,000 and 120,000 people in South Africa living with HIV. Antenatal surveys have subsequently been carried out annually.

1991 – The number of diagnosed heterosexually transmitted HIV infections equalled the number transmitted through sex between men. Since this point, heterosexually bought infections have dominated the epidemic. Several AIDS information, training and counselling centres were established during the year.

1992 – The government’s first noteworthy response to AIDS came when Nelson Mandela addressed the newly formed National AIDS Convention of South Africa (NACOSA). The purpose of NACOSA was to start developing a national strategy to cope with AIDS. The free National AIDS Helpline was founded.

1993 – The National Health Department reported that the number of recorded HIV infections had augmented by 60% in the previous two years and the number was expected to double in 1993. The HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women was 4.3%.

1994 – The Minister for Health accepted the basis of the NACOSA strategy as the foundation of the government’s AIDS plot. There was criticism that the plot, but well intended, was poorly thought-out and disorganised. The South African organisation Soul City was formed, with the aim of developing media productions to educate people about health issues, including HIV/AIDS.

1995 – The International Conference for People Living with HIV and AIDS was held in South Africa, the first time that the annual conference had been held in Africa. The then Deputy Head Thabo Mbeki, acknowledged the seriousness of the epidemic, and the South African Ministry of Health announced that some 850,000 people – 2.1% of the total population – were believed to be HIV-positive.10

1996 – The HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women was 12.2%.

1997 – The HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women was 17.0%. A national review of South Africa’s AIDS response to the epidemic found that there was a lack of political leadership.

1998 – The pressure assemble Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) was founded, to campaign for the rights of people living with HIV, and to demand access to HIV treatment in South Africa for all persons who were in need of it. Deputy Head Thabo Mbeki launched the Partnership Against AIDS, admitting that 1,500 HIV infections were occurring every day.

1999 – The HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women was 22.4%.

2000 – The Department of Health outlined a five-year plot to combat AIDS, HIV and STIs.11 A National AIDS Council was set up to administer these developments. At the International AIDS Conference in Durban, the new South African Head Thabo Mbeki made a speech that avoided reference to HIV and instead focused on the problem of poverty, fuelling fears that he saw poverty, rather than HIV, as the main cause of AIDS. Head Mbeki consulted a number of ‘dissident’ scientists who rejected the link between HIV and AIDS.

2001 – The HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women was 24.8%.

2002 – South Africa’s High Court ordered the government to make the drug nevirapine available to pregnant women to help prevent mother to child transmission of HIV. Despite international drug companies offering free or cheap antiretroviral drugs,12 the Health Ministry, led by Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, remained hesitant about providing treatment for people living with HIV.

2003 – In November, the government finally approved a plot to make antiretroviral treatment publicly available. The HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women was 27.9%.

2004 – The South African government’s treatment curriculum started to take look in Gauteng in March, followed shortly afterwards by other provinces.

2005 – At least one service point for AIDS related care and treatment had been established in al