The COVID-19 pandemic has many parallels with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, parallels worth recounting during October, which is AIDS Awareness Month.
Since the first known cases of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) in 1981, we have developed reliable HIV testing, combination drug therapies for treatment of infections, and new drug prevention methods. Unfortunately, due to the changing nature of the HIV virus, a vaccine is still not available.
With all the advances 39 years after the first cases appeared, people are still contracting and dying from AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The most recent statistics available — for 2019 — show preliminary numbers of 35 new HIV/AIDS infections in Santa Barbara County and 56 in Ventura County. (Death statistics for 2019 aren’t yet available.)
