{"id":27960,"date":"2023-11-30T14:00:43","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T19:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=27960"},"modified":"2023-11-30T13:51:42","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T18:51:42","slug":"world-aids-day-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2023\/11\/30\/world-aids-day-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"World AIDS Day: Visual Culture and Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Christie Moffatt and Elizabeth A. Mullen ~<\/em><\/p>\n

Annually on December 1st, World AIDS Day<\/a> energizes the public to unite in the fight against AIDS and to commemorate those individuals who have lost their lives to the disease. The theme for 2023, “Let Communities Lead,” speaks to the power of communities to connect and protect as well as to monitor and advocate for access to resources and accountability from authorities.<\/p>\n

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) holds a large and growing collection of materials in many formats<\/a> related to AIDS.\u00a0 For example, the AIDS and HIV historical prints and photographs collection<\/a> is one of the most comprehensive and utilized of NLM’s print collections.\u00a0 The Library has a long history of making these materials accessible<\/a> to researchers and surfacing stories of communities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
AIDSCOM: Education Is Not Enough, 1987
Profiles in Science, <\/em>National Library of Medicine #101584655X106<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NLM’s Profiles in Science<\/em> site Visual Culture and Public Health<\/a> features public health posters from NLM’s Prints and Photographs<\/a> collection and includes a section on HIV\/AIDS, examining how grassroots activists, voluntary organizations, and the public health bureaucracy confronted one of the greatest public health catastrophes of the twentieth century. This resource highlights posters from the 1980s and 1990s, exploring the how the epidemic demanded a new approach to disease prevention and education from public health educators.<\/p>\n

Early Response
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

General awareness of HIV\/AIDS in the United States is often traced to a report<\/a> by the Centers for Disease Control on a series of unusual occurrences of a rare form of cancer and a rare form of pneumonia amongst homosexual men in June 1981. By this time, the disease had spread to at least five continents without anyone knowing about or identifying the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that caused it. Before the virus was isolated and identified in 1983, a number of theories circulated about the possible cause of the opportunistic infections associated with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The puzzling initial cases created a feeling of impotence against the disease, and fear of its spread encouraged oversimplifications in media outlets that tended to identify the epidemic exclusively with homosexual white men and intravenous drug users. Throughout much of the 1980s, medical and public health professions fumbled to understand this increasingly devastating epidemic and develop therapeutic and social approaches to halting its progress. As HIV\/AIDS claimed a growing number of lives and the Reagan administration sponsored research but otherwise remained silent on the disease, Americans worried about the possibility of contagion through casual contact, and politicians called for the mandatory testing of the entire population and the quarantine of AIDS patients. The Surgeon General<\/a> wasn’t even authorized to issue a report on AIDS<\/a> until 1986.<\/p>\n

By the early 1990s HIV\/AIDS had become a hotly contested political issue and had given rise to the patient activist movement that sought to counter scapegoating of HIV carriers. The epidemic ultimately defied the widespread confidence in medicine’s ability to fight disease, challenged views of sexuality in American society, encouraged a reconciliation between scientific inquiry and compassionate care for the ill, and demanded a new approach to disease prevention and education from public health educators.<\/p>\n

Target Populations<\/h3>\n
\"A<\/a>
This Is How AIDS Victims See Themselves, 1989
Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine #101584655X104<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Different aims, messages, and strategies have strongly influenced the content and design of AIDS posters that address specific target groups. Many early AIDS prevention messages, for example, were aimed heavily at the white gay male community and intravenous drug users of all colors. While some created an atmosphere for open discussion or invite more participation from observers, others attempted to condemn or inspire fear. Because people understand pictures in different ways (depending on environment, experience, education, and beliefs) and sexual behavior is deeply rooted in culture and tradition, messages to raise awareness and encourage preventive behavior varied depending on the intended audience. Regardless of their differences, these posters are meaningful to viewers because they frequently draw on images from popular culture and express the living habits of people. As such, the messages in these posters reveal how public health educators and activists see themselves and their audiences, and how they conceptualize disease and define normal behavior.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a>
AIDS: Sharing Needles Is Just Asking for It, ca. 1988 Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine #101584655X79 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
Take This Vision Test, ca. 1990 Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine #101584655X76 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
Don’t Forget the Chapter on AIDS, ca. 1987 Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine #101584655X83 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Solidarity and Human Rights<\/h3>\n
\"A<\/a>
Love AIDS People, 1989
Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine #101584655X103<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stigma, discrimination, and human rights violations are interrelated. They create, reinforce, and legitimize each other. But while stigma and discrimination have led to the violation of the human rights of people living with HIV\/AIDS, of their families, and even those presumed to be infected, the pursuit of freedom from such discrimination has also inspired solidarity at the grassroots and international level. Public information campaigns have helped people to understand the unfairness and unjustness experienced by people living with HIV\/AIDS. These campaigns can also change individual and social attitudes by moving beyond the documentation of the issue to creating positive role models and encouraging positive action.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a>
I Have AIDS Please Hug Me, 1987 Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine #101584655X102 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
Quienes Vivimos con El SIDA, 1994 Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine #101584655X107 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The Visual Culture and Public Health<\/a><\/em> site on NLM\u2019s <\/em>Profiles in Science, features early public health posters related to AIDS from NLM’s Prints and Photographs<\/a> collection.\u00a0 Discover more about how posters have been important to communities affected by AIDS in NLM’s recent exhibition <\/em>AIDS, Posters, and Stories of Public Health: A People\u2019s History of a Pandemic<\/a>, and hear about the project from its\u00a0curator<\/a>. And learn more about a recently acquired collection of posters<\/a> created by Poster Virus an affinity group of activist organization AIDS ACTION NOW!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>Christie Moffatt is Manager of the Digital Manuscripts Program in the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine and Chair of NLM\u2019s Web Collecting and Archiving Working Group.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>Elizabeth A. Mullen is Manager of Web Development and Social Media in the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Christie Moffatt and Elizabeth A. Mullen ~ Annually on December 1st, World AIDS Day energizes the public to unite<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53041628,"featured_media":27998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12763],"tags":[5967,21052,177,22343,2720,7195,19580],"class_list":["post-27960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collections","tag-advocacy","tag-aids","tag-art","tag-hivaids","tag-human-rights","tag-posters","tag-world-aids-day"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/101584655X106_feature.jpg?fit=900%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-7gY","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53041628"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27960"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28021,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27960\/revisions\/28021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}