Pandemic to pandemic: 41 years of AIDS

This Is Nashville · Nov 30, 2022 · 50m

When the AIDS epidemic began in the 1980s, it was a time of fear, panic, misinformation and deaths. Thought to be a “gay men’s disease” in those days, AIDS became stigmatized with lifestyle and sexuality rather than scientific understanding about its transmission.

It’s been 41 years since the U.S. saw its first reported cases of HIV. We now know more about how HIV/AIDS is transmitted and how to treat it so AIDS it is no longer the death sentence it was once considered to be. Now, around 20,000 Tennesseans are living with HIV, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

December…