Forty years after the AIDS crisis, survivors see pandemic similarities.Local news

“This obvious horror tide was running around the community. Who’s next?” He said of AIDS, which killed more than 30 million people worldwide.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the AIDS epidemic, and another deadly virus has killed nearly 4 million people. For Montoya, New Mexico, and other HIV and AIDS survivors, the similarities in the government’s disparate response to both crises are clear and annoying.

“There was no urgency,” Montoya said of former President Ronald Reagan’s response to the HIV / AIDS epidemic and the treatment of former President Donald Trump’s COVID-19. “There [are] Much of my community said silence is equal to death. I think it will work today. “

“There was no publication when it first hit, and there was no government response to release the vaccine,” said HIV survivors, looking back on the similarities between the HIV / AIDS epidemic and the response in both COVID-19. Ed Moreno said.

“I remember reading a Facebook post that we had never experienced a pandemic,” said Moreno, who lives in Santa Fe. “We have been experiencing a pandemic since the 1980s. We are here in Santa Fe.”

Santa Fe has been a very important part of the history of the HIV / AIDS epidemic.

In 1983, a 36-year-old doctor named Trevor Hawkins moved to Santa Fe to begin small-scale primary care practice.

“I was the only employee,” said Hawkins, who became an internationally renowned AIDS doctor and researcher through working with patients in Santa Fe.

Many of his early patients were gay men. Hawkins quickly gained a reputation as an ally and caregiver within Santa Fe’s gay community.

In 1986, Hawkins saw his first AIDS patient. The man was the head of a school in northern New York who moved to New Mexico to live a “beautiful place,” Hawkins said.

“He died, just as most people died at the time,” Hawkins said. “He was a wonderful person.”

In the early days, people were scared because they lacked an understanding of how the virus was transmitted, Hawkins said.

When interacting with AIDS patients, hospital employees wore gloves and masks as if the virus had floated in the air and could pass through contact with the skin. According to Hawkins, some nurses leave food outside the door to avoid being in the same room as HIV / AIDS patients.

“Sometimes parents will appear [at the hospital] And I don’t recognize their son’s partner, “he said. “My lover’s partner did not have access to the bedside.”

Roger’s brother Daniel Montoya said the stigma was too common for people with HIV and AIDS.

“It was pretty terrible,” said Daniel Montoya, who learned of HIV infection in 1991. It was really devastating. “

“There was certainly a lot of stigma,” Moreno said. “I found myself with people who didn’t want to be around me or weren’t afraid to use the same cup.”

This feeling of alienation was associated with immeasurable losses. Early AIDS was a death sentence.

“I feel deeply sad because I lost three partners,” said Roger Montoya, who lost his partners in 1981, 1986, and 1990. “Not to mention hundreds of friends.”

“It happened so fast,” said Daniel Montoya. “People seem to have died within a few weeks.”

“The first decade of my experience here was a determined attempt to live a decent life for people as long as possible,” he began working on the development of new HIV / AIDS drugs through clinical trials. Hawkins says.

Moreno was able to live for five years.

“They said they could take care of me,” Moreno said after being diagnosed with the virus at a clinic on Second Street in Santa Fe. “But at that point there wasn’t really any treatment.”

It all changed when it was announced in 1996 at an international conference that the new “triple drug therapy” proved to be effective in combating the virus.

However, there is no cure for HIV or AIDS yet.

“We all had hope, but it was a vague hope,” said Moreno, who began treatment in 1996.

That same year, Hawkins started the Southwest Care Center, a non-profit AIDS clinic. Since then, he has been a leader in HIV / AIDS care and research.

“Dr. Trevor Hawkins has become a legend in the states and nations,” said Roger Montoya, artist and founder of Moving Arts Espanola.

Since the 1980s, HIV treatment has improved dramatically. Since the mid-1980s, annual infection rates have declined by more than two-thirds.

However, 1.2 million people still live with HIV in the United States and continue to have a disproportionate impact on communities left out of society, including ethnic minority and transgender communities.

Prejudice and ignorance continue.

“There is a persistent subset of discrimination against HIV-infected people that exists to this day,” said Daniel Montoya.

The AIDS epidemic was tragic, but it caused fundamental changes and forced the government to take action. Daniel Montoya wants it to be able to continue to inspire change.

While living in New York City in the 90s, he quit his job on Wall Street and marched for gay rights.

“We lay down on the street every nine minutes,” said Daniel Montoya, protesting hundreds of thousands of people stopping on the ground on Fifth Avenue to highlight the frequency of AIDS deaths during the epidemic. Said about the person.

“It made people take action,” said Daniel Montoya, who hopes that the coronavirus pandemic will spur more medical research. “You can use it more today.”