The first confirmed diagnosis of HIV was in 1981. It wasn’t until 1995 that a class of antiretrovirals called “protease inhibitors” were developed. These medications were the true game-changers in the fight against HIV being a terminal diagnosis. Prior to 1995, fighting HIV meant taking multiple pills, multiple times a day and enduring horrific side effects in exchange for even a chance to beat the virus. Now, the vast majority of HV medications are delivered in a single pill, taken once daily. Injectable HIV medicine administered once monthly is also now available.

Treating the disease called HIV has largely become routine in the United States. It’s a truism that treating diabetes can easily be more complicated than treating HIV these days. If that’s true, then why aren’t more people being treated? The reasons have nothing to do with available treatments and everything to do with how we structure our society, harmful and unfounded untruths about the many ways that humans are capable of expressing love, and the social determinants of health.

Imagine the trauma implicit in having to take a pill every day when even looking at that pill is an unwelcome reminder that the disease the pill is so effectively treating must be kept hidden from others, often including those in your family. Is that how we treat people with diabetes or hypertension? Sadly, sometimes yes (especially when it comes to obesity), but for the most part, the answer is a clear “no”. In fact, most people will go out of their way to accommodate the low-sugar, low-salt, or no-meat dietary needs/preferences of those in their social networks.