Wednesday, November 16, 2011

President Reagan gave a speech about AIDS

But on 31st May President Reagan gave a speech about AIDS at a dinner of the American Foundation for AIDS Research and particularly focused on increasing routine and compulsory AIDS testing.25

The following day Vice President George Bush opened the 3rd International Conference on AIDS in Washington and was booed by the audience when he defended President Reagan's HIV testing proposals. Demonstrators against the administration's policies were arrested outside the White House by police wearing long yellow rubber gloves.26

"On the nightly news broadcasts, the world saw pictures of demonstrators being arrested by police wearing bright yellow, arm-length gloves. Although research had by now proved that the AIDS virus could not be passed through casual contact, the sight of the gloves served to reinforce the public's general overestimation of the risk of HIV transmission."27

In June the U.S. Public Health Service added AIDS to its list of diseases for which people on public health grounds could be excluded from the USA.28 Subsequently in July the "Helms amendment" created by Senator Jesse Helms added HIV infection to the exclusion list.29 Few foresaw the implications of the addition and it went virtually unnoticed.30

In July the WHO reviewed the evidence and confirmed that HIV could be passed from mother to child through breastfeeding. Nevertheless they recommended that HIV positive mothers in developing countries should be encouraged to breastfeed, as in many circumstances safe and effective use of alternatives was impossible.31

In light of more widespread HIV testing, the CDC revised their definition of AIDS to place a greater emphasis on HIV infection status.32

Prejudice against people with HIV continued in America. The Ray family lived in Arcadia, Florida, and they had three sons, each of whom was a haemophiliac and was HIV positive. During 1986 the family was told their sons could not attend school. In 1987 the family moved to Alabama, and once again they were refused entry to school. Threats against the family grew louder and more frequent, and on August 28th the Rays' small single-storey house was doused with gasoline and torched.33

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