What is new and not so new in the history of HIV/AIDS?The history of HIV and AIDS is peppered with similarities to other epidemics observed over the 'history. However, in many ways, HIV/AIDS has presented new ways of thinking about and treating illness in our modern culture. This essay will examine these two distinct avenues of thought and help illustrate both the individuality of the epidemic and its uniformity. How is the story of AIDS/HIV not so new? In the United States, HIV and AIDS began to spread. be seen in the early 1980s. From the beginning, the disease was socially linked to the homosexual community. Early names for the disease included “gay compromise syndrome,” “gay cancer,” or “community acquired immune dysfunction.” This stigmatization of homosexuality with AIDS/HIV is one of the recurring themes observed over time in regards to the disease. Furthermore, throughout the 1980s, AIDS also retained the stigma of immorality and promiscuity. These stigmas have developed due to the general characteristics of HIV transmission. Transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus has occurred through behaviors considered socially deviant and immoral, including homosexual relations, promiscuity, and intravenous drug use. In this way, a negative stigma of immorality and homosexuality was shaped. This development of stigma can be seen in various illnesses contracted in different cultures and periods across the world. For example, Hansen's disease, more commonly known as leprosy, has for thousands of years retained the stigma of uncleanliness, immorality and savagery. “Leprosy has long been the archetype of a stigmatized health problem, so much so that the words leprosy and leper are used as slurs in many societies. » O...... middle of paper ......ics.Works Cited1. Brakel, Wim H. and Beatriz M. Galarza. “Infectious Diseases: A Case Study of Leprosy Stigma.” The stigmatization of illness and disability. Ed. Patrick W. Corrigan. Washington: American Psychological Association, 2014. N. pag. Print.2. Ruel, Erin and Richard T. Campbell. “Homophobia and HIV/AIDS: changing attitude in the face of an epidemic.” Social Forces 84.4 (2006): 2167-178.3. Johnson, Hans and William Eskridge. “The Legacy of Falwell's Bully Pulpit—A Commentary by William Eskridge 78.” The Legacy of Falwell's Bully Pulpit Commentary by William Eskridge 78. Yale Law School, May 19, 2007. Web. April 26, 2014. .4. Hoad, Neville Wallace. “The intellectual, the archives and the pandemic.” African intimacies: race, homosexuality and globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2007. 92-98. Print.