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Over the last four decades, HIV/AIDS has killed at least 700,000 Americans. COVID-19 has killed more in two years.

1
Morgan Keith
·3 min read
A visitor sits on a bench to look at artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg's "In America: Remember," a temporary art installation made up of white flags to commemorate Americans who have died of COVID-19, on the National Mall, in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021.
A visitor sits on a bench to look at artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg's "In America: Remember," a temporary art installation made up of white flags to commemorate Americans who have died of COVID-19, on the National Mall, in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

  • In the US, more than 700,000 people have died from HIV-related illness since 1981.

  • Antiretroviral therapies have significantly reduced HIV-related infections and deaths.

  • Both COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS have disproportionately impacted minority communities.

COVID-19 has killed approximately 750,000 Americans over the last two years, officially surpassing the number of lives lost to HIV/AIDS over the last four decades to become the country's deadliest pandemic.

Recent data from the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation found more than 700,000 people have died from HIV-related illness since its emergence in the US in 1981. Highly effective antiretroviral therapies were developed during the 1990s, turning HIV/AIDS from the leading cause of death in young adults into a "chronic manageable condition," according to peer-reviewed scientific journal "AIDS."

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Today, antiretroviral therapies like Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) are widely accepted due to their substantial reduction of HIV-related infections and deaths.

"The rapid and progressive development of antiretroviral therapy has not only proven to be life-saving for many millions but has been instrumental in unveiling the inequities in access to health between rich and poor countries of the world," researchers wrote for the AIDS scientific journal.

Despite their differing rates of transmission and mortality, the negative outcomes of both COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS have been disproportionately borne by minority communities.