AIDS is a disease of the immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The majority of people with the virus don’t know they have it. The disease is devastating Africa. The continent is home to about 14.5% of the world’s population and 72% of all AIDS deaths.
In 1969, an American teenager from Missouri named Robert R. became the earliest confirmed victim of AIDS. It remains unclear how Robert got the virus. A woman named Kimberly Bergalis was the first person to get HIV from a clinical transmission. She received the virus from her dentist.
Since the beginning of the plague, more than 70 million people have been infected with the HIV and about 35 million people have died of HIV.
Globally, 40 million people are living with HIV. More than 1.1 million people in the USA are living with HIV today, and one in seven of them don’t know it.
An estimated 37,600 Americans became newly infected with HIV in 2016.
From 2008 to 2016, the estimated number of annual HIV infections in the U.S. declined 18%.
Gay and bisexual men, particularly young African American gay and bisexual men, are most affected.
Southern states bear the greatest burden of HIV, accounting for 50% of new infections in 2016.
It is mostly considered to be a manageable medical condition in our own time, but in the USA, 6,721 people died from HIV and AIDS last year.
Worldwide, an estimated one million people died from HIV-related illnesses in 2016.
Since the spread of HIV, hundreds of famous people have died from the disease. Except for Ryan White, the young activist that changed the public’s perception of HIV, everyone on this list had an established and notable career before getting HIV. It is an incomplete list. There is no particular order.
Please add the names of anyone I left out, plus your own friends, lovers and comrades, in the comments on World Of Wonder’s Facebook page. Let’s never forget.
Taken By HIV/AIDS:
Robert Mapplethorpe
Freddie Mercury
Rudolf Nureyev
Michael Bennett
Liberace
Rock Hudson
Keith Haring
Herb Ritts
Bruce Chatwin
Gia Carangi
Isaac Asimov
Anthony Perkins
Leigh Bowery
Ricky Wilson
Ryan White
Robert Reed
Charles Ludlam
Tina Chow
Arthur Ashe
Brad Davis
Casey Donovan
Way Bandy
Leonard Matlovich
Peter Hujar
Wayland Flowers
Leonard Frey
Tony Richardson
Denholm Elliott
Halston
Max Robinson
Howard Rollins
Dack Rambo
Peter Allen
John Holmes
Hibiscus
Elizabeth Glaser
Marlon Riggs
Erik Bruhn
David Wojnarowicz
Perry Ellis
Tom Eyen
Néstor Almendros
James Kirkwood
Ray Sharkey
Lance Loud
photo via YouTube
Klaus Nomi
Willi Ninja
John Curry
Michael Callen
Michael Jeter
Pedro Zamora
John Boswell
Randy Shilts
Vito Russo
Arthur Russell
Glenn Burke
Amanda Blake
Sylvester
Michel Foucault
Derek Jarman
Alvin Ailey
Steve Rubell
Howard Ashman
Ian Charleson
World AIDS Day is commemorated each year on the 1st of December and is an opportunity for every community to unite in the fight against HIV, show support for people living with HIV and remember those who have passed away.
In Britain, Prince Harry and the actor Meghan Markle lent their support to a World Aids Day charity fair. Attending their first public event as an engaged couple, they were shown one of 48 UK Aids Memorial Quilts.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron took an HIV test a visit at the Delafontaine Hospital in Saint-Denis, near Paris.
In Washington DC, POTUS issued a statement marking the date. But in a break with tradition, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, out vulgarians president did not mention the specific minorities who were disproportionately affected by the plague in his proclamation.
Mariah Carey, DJ Khaled and Mario Lopez performed in the 30th anniversary concert for World Aids Day in LA.
The post #WorldAidsDay: A Remembrance of Those Taken by the Plague appeared first on The WOW Report.
