In 1981, AIDS breached onto the medical scene when hundreds of white gay men started having documented cases of severe immune deficiency. In addition to gay white men, another group that was initially identified as being at risk for HIV/AIDS is intravenous drug users.

Populations Associated with HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS was originally only viewed as a medical epidemiologic concern for white gay men. This assumption was made was in part because of assumptions from medical professionals and in part because white gay men had some of the earliest documented cases of HIV/AIDS and  white gay men served at the forefront of activism that emerged from the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

The National Black Women's Health Project took a dual-pronged approach to the HIV/AIDS epidemic which on one had aimed to reduce the number of new HIV infections and another prong which worked to provide support to Black women living with HIV/AIDS.

The NBWHP's Approach to HIV/AIDS

Schalk, Sami. Black Disability Politics, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478027003

Black Disability Politics

Schalk argues that the NBWHP's approach to HIV/AIDS is a prime example of how health activism work can work to reduce the severity and incidence of disability, illness, and disease while also participating in disability politics by supporting those who are disabled, ill and sick. The NBWHP's HIV/AIDS activism is a prime example of how organizations can do this work in antiracist, feminist and anti-ableist ways. 

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