In the late nineteen seventies and early nineteen eighties a new illness began to make the news. At first it seemed to only effect homosexual men. It was a disease that attacked the human auto immune system. It completely destroyed it so that any illness could become fatal. At the time homosexaulity was becoming slightly more tolerated in society and even openly shown. At first it was declared a “gay plague” but it soon became clear that it was being transferred not only sexually but also via blood transfusion and sharing hypodermic needles. It was not limited to the male homosexual community, anyone could get it.
It became clear that there were two stages to the diseases. The first was becoming HIV positive. This is not full blown AIDs but the precursor to it. After years of dedicated work by scientists we have been able to maintain this state for sufferers of the disease, but not indefinitely.
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There was no way of knowing who had HIV. Unprotected sex was a risk or rather even riskier than it had been. Just as humans had managed to cure gonorrhea and syphilis this worse condition came along. We have changed our attitudes towards sex and the use of condoms has tripled, the only real protection after abstinence, but it still remains despite cases remaining stable or rising very slowly. There are still others around, for example Chlamydia Testing Kits London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast are available.