The National Library of Medicine has provided the “Surviving and Thriving: AIDS, Politics and Culture Exhibit” at the UMD School of Public Health.
Since last Tuesday, this university’s public health school has held an exhibition detailing the history of AIDS in this country, from the perspectives of patients living with the disease to its present implications on public health issues.
The exhibition, titled “Surviving and Thriving: AIDS, Politics and Culture,” is on display at the university as a part of National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine traveling exhibition program, which allows public libraries and universities to rent out the displays for limited periods.
Blakely Pomietto, chief of staff for the dean’s office in the public health school, initially reached out to the national library about the exhibition due to the impact she feels it can have on students who may not have been aware of the history from this point of view.
“I thought our community would be very interested in that,” Pomietto said. “We have a lot of students and faculty in the School of Public Health and on campus who have been active in one way or another in fighting against HIV and AIDS, and are interested in the history and the future of that issue.”
The exhibition shows an in-depth view of the issue’s history, with multiple references for further readings from voices within the AIDS community. It includes the progression of how the disease was treated in the U.S., not just in a medical sense, but also in social and cultural contexts.
Additionally, it shows how some politicians initially ignored the epidemic in the 1980s and how many labeled it as an issue exclusively affecting gay men.
“The message we want students to walk away with today, I guess, is two parts,” said Patricia Tuohy, exhibition program head at the National Library of Medicine. “One is to think about the social issues that have impacts upon the delivery of healthcare, whether it’s money or discrimination or access to care, and how that affects patients and patients’ lives. And the second is to advocate for good health — for yourself, for your community and the people you care about.”
Tuohy also said the lessons learned through the exhibit could be applied by students in fields other than public health.
“I take a very broad view of history,” she said. “I think everything connects to history, and I think everything connects to health. … It all comes into play.”
The exhibition also includes a portion on the current state of affairs with regards to HIV and AIDS, and the direction advocating health equity for those infected may continue to go in.
Jane Clark, dean of the public health school, emphasized the importance of students using the lessons learned from the history of the disease to think about public health in the future.
“You never know when we’re going to have something like this again,” Clark said. “Whenever you have something new come on the scene, ‘What’s the public health response to this?’ That’s what people say. … No one knew what [AIDS] really was and what an epidemic was and how it was going to affect everyone, and people were dying. It wasn’t a trivial thing.”
The exhibition will remain at the public health school until Nov. 8.
