Jean Q. Davis
In June of 1981, The Center for Disease Control reported the first clues to the mystery that became the story of the HIV disease syndrome. For students beginning highschool now, it means that AIDS has been part of their lives since they were four or five years old. Many do not know those early years of discovery and the struggle and fear, even hysteria, for those early patients, scientists, doctors, health care workers, families, neighborhoods, and school systems. Telling that story often.helps calm current fears because it parallels on adolescent’s alarm, knowledge, and then understanding.
The first reports were of an outbreak of a rare pneumonia (pneumocystis corinli) and of a rare cancer (Kaposi’s sarcoma) in a group of homosexual men in Los Angeles in 1981. Both diseases affected those with weakened immune systems. An alarm was sounded as no cure was known, no explanation for the onset, and only theories about transmission. As the number of cases increased, fear ruled.
However, by 1982, epidemiologists figured out how the disease was transmitted and by 1984 the new virus was discovered. A test was devised to find the virus in blood the next year and checks for the blood supply were developed. Currently, there is not a cure but therapies and drugs have been developed that prolong and improve the quality of patients lives.
One doctor and research scientist who has been working in AIDS research for this ten year time span is quoted in
The New York Times
, “With my head I know we have made major strides, I know that. But with my heart, I know we haven’t begun yet.” (Kolato, 1991)
From the initial group of homosexual men, others began to show signs of illness. There was surprise and consternation as children and infants become ill. Drug abusers were another early risk group. Some of the means of transmission become clear—blood, mothers were giving it to their children in utero, and children with hemophilia were contracting the Virus from the blood products they received. (Shilts, 1987)
Victims from these early risk groups did not receive much sympathy until Ryan White and other celebrities gave AIDS a more human face. It is fascinating to ask adolescents today what they know of Ryan’s story and how he acquired AIDS. It is often a good reflection of their understanding and presents many issues for discussion, both medical and social. Teens certainly identify with his story and his struggle. The tale of discrimination that he endured is particularly poignant. Teens understand particularly well how important it is not to be different.
In New Haven, the history of AIDS followed a slightly different track from the notional one, and it continues to do so. Very early the virus became an issue for drug abusers. Consequently, New Haven has an extremely high proportion of women and children with AIDS. As the children grew to be school age, the question of being mainstreamed in a regular classroom came to a head. Fear was rampant in other parts of the country and challenges were being made in the courts os to how infectious AIDS would be in a classroom setting.
The Connecticut Civil Liberties Union sued the New Haven School District on behalf of several entering kindergarten children. They sued for the right for these children to be in school. While the case was being litigated the children were educated by a certified teacher in the offices of the New Haven Urban League. Also, during this time, Dr. Dow and the Board of Education mandated that all administrators, faculty, staff, students, and parents have AIDS education. The case was settled before it came to trial and the children have been enrolled successfully for several years now.
