The Man Who Brought HIV Testing In Mainstream Died Of A Cardiovascular Disease

Last month, the 63-year-old champion of HIV Testing passed away of hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. This is A Cornelius Baker. Born on September 30, 1961, in Sodus, a village in upstate New York, he spent 40 years of his life working to make HIV testing accessible to all and working towards its awareness. On November 8, he passed away in his home in Washington.

He was a gay, who tested positive for HIV, writes The New York Times. He became active in Washington in the 1980s, which was also the early years of the AIDS epidemic. He became the voice for people with HIV and AIDS. He held positions in federal government, and nonprofits and served as head of a clinic for the LGBTQ community.

In 1995, as the executive director of the National Association of People with AIDS, he also established June 27 as the National HIV Testing Day, promoting HIV testing to the mainstream. It also reduced the stigma of HIV testing and normalized it as a component of regular health screening.

He was also the adviser to the National Black Gay Men's Advocacy Coalition from 2006 to 2015. There, he worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health to help fund research for the care of gay Black men with HIV and AIDS.

The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis was conducted between 1932 and 1972 and observed the natural history of the disease, writes CDC. The state had promised 600 African American men in Alabama free medical care in return for studying the progression of the disease.

However, on the contrary, the men were only given placebos such as aspirin and mineral supplements, despite knowing that penicillin must be used for its treatment. This was known to the world already in 1947. As a result, many of the men died, went blind or insane or experienced other severe health problems due to their untreated syphilis. This distrust of the Tuskegee study impeded efforts to fight AIDS in Black neighborhoods.

In 1997, Baker told The New York Times that Black people would not take AIDS medicine because they feared that they would be "killed off as part of the master plan". He also lobbied for President Bill Clinton to apologize for the federal government's involvement, eventually, he did, and said, "What the United States did was shameful, and I am sorry."

He was suffering from hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. This is a condition that involves plaque buildup in the artery walls. This can lead to issues like coronary heart disease, heart attack, angina, and coronary artery stenosis.

It also reduces blood flow to the heart muscle, which then causes chest pain. It could also lead to excessive thickening of the heart muscle, heart failure or stroke. This is what Baker lost his life to, however, his efforts to combat misinformation and fear-mongering about HIV and AIDS will be remembered and work as a stepping stone for many more developments in health care, especially towards sexual health to come.