What the fight against HIV can teach us about defeating Covid-19

In the eighties, we were warned to beware an easily spread, deadly virus. The government’s ominous HIV adverts told us not to ‘die of ignorance’. Thus a generation was educated through fear how to avoid infection by practicing safer sex and avoiding contact with the blood of those who are positive. 

While those messages are still important today, HIV no longer represents the death sentence it once did. Still a life-altering and permanent disease, it can now be managed in a way that means people often live full lives with HIV, rather than die early because of it.

No successful vaccination has been developed for HIV, but other medical developments helped to change the prognosis for those who contract it. Antiretrovirals work by stopping the virus replicating in the body, allowing the immune system to repair itself and prevent further damage. For some years already, these drugs have not only been used for long-term HIV patients, but also to ‘stop the virus in its tracks’.