Opinion: Charlie Sheen’s blackmail fears show HIV stigma is still a career-killer

I learned two important things from actor Charlie Sheen’s revelation this week on the “Today” show that he’s HIV positive: that he’s just as skeezy as I thought and that more than 30 years after the height of the AIDS epidemic, there’s still an astonishing amount of stigma attached to this disease.

Magic Johnson’s public disclosure of his HIV status nearly 25 years ago hasn’t changed as much as one might have thought.

It took millions in blackmail payouts and years of stress over being outed that finally drove Sheen to take the offensive. But blackmail threats are meaningful only if the information can damage one’s reputation. And apparently Sheen believed that it would.

Beyond that dismaying news, it’s not a bad thing for the straight world to get an HIV wake-up call. Actually, a snooze alert might be a better metaphor because we all know, at least in the abstract, that HIV remains a health threat. But not that bad, right?

Wrong. Despite the advance in treatment options, HIV infections are still the cause of an estimated 13,000 deaths a year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Transmission rates continue to remain stable, with about 50,000 new infections reported each year. While most of the cases are traced to men having sex with other men, about one-quarter of the new cases are transmitted via heterosexual sex (presumably unprotected) and 8% by intravenous drug use.

HIV isn’t the death sentence it once was, and many people are living long and relatively healthy lives with regular medication, including Sheen. But this disease is still a serious scourge that can kill people and, evidently, careers as well.

Follow me @marielgarzaLAT

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