What’s in a label? Learning from the HIV-TB deadly symbiosis.

Rachel Klein*
Tufts University, Community Health and Spanish Major, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 50 Haven

Avenue, Box #266, Columbia University The World Health Organization (WHO) announced in September of 2003 that HIV / AIDS should be labeled “global health emergency” rather than just a pandemic. Might the severity of the label cause more harm than good? This essay attempts to tackle this question by considering what has been learnt from previous such declarations, specifically with respect to Tuberculosis, a close companion of HIV/AIDS. The label of “emergency” is necessary for any disease that fits the description; however, when two diseases are as closely linked as are HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, shouldn’t the term be applied to them collectively?

In 1981, shortly after the first reports of AIDS in the United States among gay men and injecting drug users, it became evident that the disease was also present among other populations. The identification of a variant of the virus, HIV-2, in African populations, further increased the heterogeneity of what quickly emerged as a “globalpandemic” .

A “pandemic” is defined as a widespread disease outbreak affecting the population of an extensive area of the world  . The term“pandemic” was a necessary  and advantageous step made by the CDC and the WHO to give HIV/ AIDS the public attention and both medical and humanitarian funding required to stem its advance. Two decades into its existence and despite concerted efforts and funding to combat the deadly virus, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has continued to worsen. “In two short decades, HIV/AIDS has become the premiere disease of mass destruction,” stated Dr. Jack Chow, the assistant director-general of WHO, and that “the death odometer is spinning at 8,000 lives a day and acceleratin”