page_title: HIV/AIDS activism
section_title: History of anti-disease activism in Europe
hierarchical_section_title: HIV/AIDS activism / History of anti-disease activism by region / History of anti-disease activism in Europe
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: II. Ort des Gedenkens auf dem Bergfriedhof (Heidelberg) für alle die ihre Freunde und Angehörigen durch Aids verloren haben
context_page_description: Social activism against the spread of HIV/AIDS and in support of effective treatment has taken place in multiple nations across the world over the past several decades. In terms of the complex history of HIV/AIDS in human beings, widespread criticism by regular individuals against public health organizations have escalated into protest movements due to slow treatment responses. Methods of demonstration have included the hanging of political leaders in effigy, pamphleteer activities, placard waving, public marches, sit-ins, and the like.
context_section_description: Cases of mysterious deaths in Europe during the early 1980s caused the proliferation of discrimination, fear, and stigma like in other areas. The World Health Organization (WHO) has remarked in a statement that "AIDS was—and in absolute, global terms still is—a stinging challenge to the values of modernity received, for better or worse, from Europe's Age of Enlightenment... [since] [a]ffluent, confident, gender-progressive, often social-democratic welfare states awoke, in the early 1980s, to an uncomfortable reminder of their human frailty." On example of the extreme reactions by some politicians is far-right French figure Jean-Marie Le Pen and his proposal of confining people with HIV/AIDS in prison-like facilities.
  European politics have frequently involved championing the fight against HIV/AIDS as a human rights issue. Health care itself is also fundamentally seen as a matter of fundamental rights, requiring major government investment and regulation. Despite this, social changes have taken place since the world economic recession of the late 2000s that have shifted budgets' focus toward cost containment and increased efficiency.
  One of the world's most important anti-disease events got started in central Europe. Held yearly on 1 December, World AIDS Day was first conceived in August 1987 by James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter. The two public information officers worked for the Global Programme on AIDS at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
  Bunn later commented to NPR about his motivations at the time, stating that:
  "The stigma that surrounded AIDS was actually twofold. One of it was what you could easily argue had to do with homophobia. But also there was a stigma of fear. There was a lot that people felt they did not know about the epidemic[,] and they were afraid. And they were right to be afraid because of the things that they were hearing... [while] the stigma that surrounded it made it something that people didn't want to talk about. If it came into their lives... also, for people who were affected by it, they did not want to bring up... their experience... with it because[,] in those days, people were being fired from their jobs. They were being denied Social Security benefits. They were being ostracized by their families. They were being evicted from their homes because they were sick and dying."
caption: A obelisk stands in memorial to victims of AIDS inside a Heidelberg, (Germany) cemetery
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