What if AIDS became a worldwide pandemic by 1935

What if the AIDS virus managed to leave Africa in the late 20s and spread throughout the world from the capitals of the United States to Germany to Russia, etc. by 1935? What would be the effect on laws and social mores?

How would different nations deal with the pandemic?

jamhaw said:

The right in Weimar Germany would have more ammunition for attacking the decadence of the Weimar republic for one.

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It took some time for them to figure out what AIDS was caused by OTL. It was spreading in the late 70s and it wasn't until the start of the 80s that they figured out how it was transmitted and the first ideas about the disease and how it was transmitted OTL were wrong.

I suspect it won't be until 1934-35 at the earliest that they figure out there is a problem, then perhaps another year or so to figure out how it is being transmitted and if it is a virus or bacteria.

The U.S. public health service was vastly more powerful in the 1930s then it was by the 1970s so that is a plus, the negative is that this will be very hard to test for in the 1930s until people get the diseases that come along with AIDS.

It would be quite the nightmare because the lack of ability to test for it and I imagine false info about the disease would be much more widely disseminated. It would have significant political effects and social effects as well.

jmc247 said:

It took some time for them to figure out what AIDS was caused by OTL. It was spreading in the late 70s and it wasn't until the start of the 80s that they figured out how it was transmitted and the first ideas about the disease and how it was transmitted OTL were wrong.

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Back in the 1930s, it might be classified in the same category as cancer or something given how long it takes to tear somebody down. Assuming any infected live that long; there were a lot more diseases floating around back then.

Would the 1930s governments push campaigns for the use of condoms or the more prudish environment might prevent it, thus helping the spread of the disease? (Then again, I might be misinformed about how really prudish and conservative societies really were back then)

Unless it becomes very widespread, I don't think it butterflies away WWII. It will, instead, make it far more deadly, as it would spread through sexual contact as well as blood transfusions. It might change the outcome if one country's army collapses due the disease before their enemies.

I suspect this is one of the things our ancestors would have been horrible people concerning, in the same category as forcibly making mentally disabled people infertile and testing syphilis on black men.

All that talk about quarantine and such? I'd expect that to become a reality. I'd also expect a major backlash against sex. Not condoms, but a prudish attitude typical of the 30s, and an extreme fear mongering.

The way it goes, AIDs may be a limited epidemic, though. There's not going to be a treatment for it in decades, so it may be like a plague where the infected die out over time.

Almost literally impossible. Travel was too restricted, the "sexual revolution" and blood transfusion (especially the sort related to hemophilia) was vastly different, IV drug use was relatively rare, and probably most critically, the virus itself hadn't mutated. This is demonstrable by the fact that there were isolated cases from the 1930s that were identified once the mechanism of the disease was identified. Moreover, as already noted, the ability to identify viral agents was almost nonexistent.

If there was any impact it would be some level of even greater discrimination against the Gay community since the disease would be concentrated in that community.

CalBear said:

Almost literally impossible. Travel was too restricted, the "sexual revolution" and blood transfusion (especially the sort related to hemophilia) was vastly different, IV drug use was relatively rare, and probably most critically, the virus itself hadn't mutated. This is demonstrable by the fact that there were isolated cases from the 1930s that were identified once the mechanism of the disease was identified. Moreover, as already noted, the ability to identify viral agents was almost nonexistent.

If there was any impact it would be some level of even greater discrimination against the Gay community since the disease would be concentrated in that community.

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Well, the POD might include the virus mutating earlier and emerging from Africa earlier as well.
However, even if it reaches Europe in the '30s (and might as well begin to emerge in a heterosexual enviroment, and maybe in brothels), yes, it would spread slower than it did in the '80s in OTL