Analyzing The Role of Class and Gender in the Treatment of HIV/AIDS

ananyalihini
Jan 5, 2023
3 min read

Updated: Mar 31, 2023

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a sexually transmitted disease that damages its host's immune system. The disease presents itself as flu-like symptoms that usually appear 2 to 4 weeks after the carrier contracted the disease. HIV that is left untreated can tear away at the immune system and eventually develop into Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) which is far harder to slow the progression of than its precursor.

In 1981, AIDS was recognized as a clinical syndrome when hospitals in California and New York noticed clusters of young men showing unusual symptoms. Merely two months after this discovery, doctors observed the same symptoms and signs in a woman. Within a year, symptoms of AIDS were being found in men and women who took intravenous drugs, hemophiliacs and people they had slept with, and women in Haiti who shared some of the same possible "risk factors" as other patients who were identified as having the syndrome. Still, AIDS in women was not taken seriously.

By the mid-1980's, misinformation about this "man's disease" was being spread globally. Many thought that it was nearly impossible for a woman to contract AIDS due to her genitalia being less vulnerable than a man's. As the demographic of the patients with this syndrome being mainly homosexual men to heterosexual couples, the blame of this epidemic continued to be thrown on homosexual males. Yet, the media and press failed to cover a side of the story that had not been considered by the general public: the story of women of color.

As the concept of HIV/AIDS was becoming more widespread, more studies were being conducted; although these studies helped society's collective understanding of the disease, women were often left out and data on women with HIV/AIDS was scarce. In turn, groups that were less frequently included in such studies, such as females or the poor, they were at a higher risk for contracting the virus; and the stories of Darlene Johnson and Guylene Adrien speak to this phenomenon.

These women of color led tough lives; their situations being the main risk factor in their contraction and failed treatment of HIV/AIDS. In Darlene Johnson's case, she grew up as an impoverished, African American women living in Harlem and she was addicted to heroin, which made her odds of dodging an HIV diagnosis slim. As as addict, when the treatment for HIV was being distributed, there was only a certain number of slots available to her. Furthermore, close to none of these spots were intended for pregnant women like Darlene, because even in the category of "poor heroin addict", she, as a pregnant woman, was still a marginalized minority. The invalidity of her disease in a treatment group simply because of her condition led to absolutely no change in the knowledge of HIV/AIDS in women which continued to make it hard for women to know to seek HIV treatment.

Guylène Adrien, a Haitian woman with AIDS, was in a similar situation. Guylène was a poor woman living in Haiti who didn't know she was carrying HIV. Once her husband died of the disease, much like in Darlene Johnson's case, she was diagnosed. Thankfully, the baby that Guylène was carrying at the time was able to be diagnosed "HIV free" two years after his birth. If not for the prenatal treatment of her HIV, her baby would've lived his entire life with the disease. Situations like these prove that the poor are often at a higher risk for deadly diseases. When people cannot afford the finances for medical bills, the time for doctors appointments/treatments due to responsibilities, or do not have the education to understand that their symptoms need medical attention, they often fall short of treatment and are left with illnesses that have been caught too late to be treated. And when left untreated, these diseases can be passed on which is essentially a predisposition to hardship, making it even harder for one's circumstances to become better. This creates a loop of struggle that people in poverty or other tough situations can't escape from.