1980's Iconic

It is widely believed that HIV originated in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo around 1920 when HIV crossed species from chimpanzees to humans. Up until the 1980s, we do not know how many people developed HIV or AIDS. HIV was unknown and transmission was not accompanied by noticeable signs or symptoms.

While sporadic cases of AIDS were documented prior to 1970, available data suggests that the current epidemic started in the mid- to late 1970s. By 1980, HIV may have already spread to five continents (North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Australia). In this period, between 100,000 and 300,000 people could have already been infected. 

In the mid 1980s, there was intense media focus on this new and frightening disease with no known cure. Victims were often viewed as falling into two groups: haemophiliacs who were often labelled 'innocent victims', and gay men and drug users, who were frequently referred to as 'authors of their own misfortune'. 

Throughout the 1980's these disease was known as gay flu, and as such put large amounts of the media and public attention on the gay community, leading to further and wider spread homophobia in the united states. This led to Aids/HIV being seen as a gay problem and thus received little to no government funding for a cure in the early years. But as time moved on it became apparent that the disease affected all sexualities and drug close to a cure was discovered in 1989. 

Even though Aids/HIV is almost a livable condition it still claims thousands of lives a year Africa, with the lack of finance means if you are born on the continent you have a 1-6 chance of being born with the virus.