Ryan White, an American teenager with haemophilia, contracted HIV from contaminated blood products and became one of the first public faces of AIDS in the US. He faced prejudice and legal battles to attend school, but became an outspoken advocate for AIDS education until his death in 1990. His legacy inspired the Ryan White Care Act, which provides funding for low-income people with HIV/AIDS.
Ryan White was an American teenager who died of AIDS in 1990. He was one of the first public faces with AIDS in the United States and helped change perceptions of HIV/AIDS; despite his illness, White was an outspoken advocate on HIV and AIDS until his death, speaking everywhere from Congress to national television. Along with people like Rock Hudson, Magic Johnson and Freddie Mercury, Ryan White humanized HIV/AIDS for Americans and illustrated the importance of addressing the AIDS epidemic.
White was born in 1971 and was diagnosed with haemophilia at the age of three days. For much of his young life, he was in and out of the hospital, and was also forced to receive treatment with blood products. One of the blood products used to treat Ryan White was contaminated with HIV, a common problem before HIV/AIDS was formally recognized and a blood screening test was developed. In 1984, White had full-blown AIDS, discovered during a surgical procedure to treat complications of pneumonia.
In the 1980s, public awareness of AIDS was very limited. Most people thought the disease only affected gay men; in fact, AIDS was once known as gay-related immunodeficiency (GRID). Ryan White was determined to go to school and continue with his life, but he faced considerable prejudice and opposition. Parents and teachers at his school in Kokomo, Indiana, tried to block his return to school, despite the scientific community’s support for Ryan’s case, and a series of lengthy legal battles ensued.
In the end, Ryan White won the right to go back to school, but faced ridicule and prejudice. After a bullet was fired in the family home, the Whites moved to Cicero, Indiana, where he was greeted by AIDS-sensitive students and staff at Hamilton Heights High School. He often cited his experiences in Hamilton Heights as evidence of the effectiveness of AIDS education.
Though Ryan White tried to live a relatively normal life, he became an AIDS poster boy, thanks to his willingness to speak openly about AIDS issues and promote AIDS education. He became a minor celebrity in the United States and an inspiration to many AIDS patients who struggled with the prejudices resulting from a lack of education and awareness about the disease. Ryan White has often emphasized in public appearances that AIDS patients could not transmit the disease through casual contact and that many of them suffered from ostracism.
After Ryan White’s death in 1990, which outlived his original five-year prognosis, US Congress passed the Ryan White Care Act, which provides funding for low-income people with HIV/AIDS. His death inspired public commentary by a number of notable figures, and many of the generation of children who went to school in America in the late 1980s and early 1990s remember Ryan White on posters and AIDS educational videos.
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