RENT, does Mimi have full AIDS?

[Alba_rios01]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 1:30pm

We know for a fact that Mimi is HIV positive, as well as Roger. Anyway, I read somewhere that by the end of the song "Goodbye love" she kind of admits having AIDS when she says: "goodbye, love. Hello, disease".

What do you think? Sounds pretty strange to me since a person usually takes up to ten years to have full AIDS (if they don´t take medicines). And Mimi is 19 and she´s taking her AZT. 

Updated On: 7/26/19 at 01:30 PM

[Kitsune]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 1:36pm

I'm no medical expert, but HIV drugs are a lot better in modern times than the late 80s/early 90s. Like Angel, it makes sense that her illness could progress quickly.

Also keep in mind that Mimi is using drugs and otherwise abusing her health, which I'm sure didn't help things.

[Lot666]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 1:40pm

Alba_rios01 said: "a person usually takes up to ten years to have full AIDS"

Maybe today, but that wasn't true just a few short decades ago. It was not uncommon in the 80s to be diagnosed and then die within months, or even weeks.

 

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 1:57pm

An hiv positive person TODAY should expect to have AIDS in ten years? Oh my.

A person with hiv today who is on treatment (meaning a pill a day) can expect to live a full, normal life with a regular life expectancy. Maybe you guys are talking about the Mimi’s of today who don’t take care of themselves?

[Fetus]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 1:57pm

Rent takes place two years after the AIDS crisis started to see its first FDA approved medications, and while many doctors were still using single-drug treatments for HIV. As other users have said it was common at the time for HIV to progress into AIDS in a matter of months or weeks from diagnosis because doctors were still studying the disease and did not have a complete scope of all the complications it caused if not properly treated.

[Alba_rios01]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 2:01pm

Yeah definitely. Luckily, medicine has advanced in that field, so those ten years are for the people who don´t take any kind of medicine

[Skip23]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 2:42pm

Well, RENT was never fully developed, so Mimi could have, or NOT have AIDS.  I mean, she makes a miraculous recovery from whatever it is she had, so...anything seems to go.

 

 

[EllieRose2]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 2:45pm

 Sounds pretty strange to me since a person usually takes up to ten years to have full AIDS (if they don´t take medicines)

That's incredibly inaccurate. Doctors have stated when the disease was found and they were figuring out ways to cure it that it could take as little as six months to die. If you are referring to anything past 1996, if people blew off their medications then it would be the same thing. Every immune system is different. The character of Mimi was irresponsible, did not eat, and abused heroin. She would have been dead pretty quickly.

But, it's a musical so.....yeah. 

[quizking101]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 2:58pm

At the time of the musical, AZT was brand new, not always readily available, and came with ravaging side effects that rivaled the disease itself. As previously stated, Mimi was also an exotic dancer and IV drug user, both of which could expose her to consistent reinfection and attack her immune system.

[EllieRose2]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 3:24pm

At the time of the musical, AZT was brand new

AZT was approved in America in 1987. The musical takes place in 1994. So, no, it was not. 

 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 3:27pm

EllieRose2 said: "At the time of the musical, AZT was brand new

AZT was approved in America in 1987. The musical takes place in 1994. So, no, it was not.”

 

RENT takes place at least a few years before 1994. It’s never said specifically, but the film is set in 1989-1990.

[Wildcard]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 3:33pm

There are different strains of HIV, some of which progress faster to AIDS. 

She may not have had AIDS but "hello disease" could have referred to the inevitability of her getting it at that time. Many developed resistance to AZT and transitioned into having AIDS. Likewise, its side effects were very harsh and coupled with her taking drugs, her immune system was under heavy attack. 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 5:54pm

Just a few years ago, Michael Friedman died of AIDS just two months after being diagnosed.

[Impossible2]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 6:03pm

You don't die from Aids, you die from whatever disease you have contracted because your immune system is so low.

[EllieRose2]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 6:10pm

Michael rarely went to the doctor, and he had had the disease for a very long time. It was too late when he finally sought medical attention. 

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 7/26/19 at 11:39pm

EllieRose2 said: "At the time of the musical, AZT was brand new

AZT was approved in America in 1987. The musical takes place in 1994. So, no, it was not."

AZT was approved in America in 1987, but it wasn't immediately available for everyone who needed it. Also it cost $10K a year until the 1990s. It's not improbable that someone like Mimi wouldn't have had access to it until recently.

[trpguyy]

Posted: 7/27/19 at 7:39am

Impossible2 said: "You don't die from Aids, you die from whatever disease you have contracted because your immune system is so low."

That’s kind of like saying “it wasn’t the bullets that killed him, it was the rapid loss of blood”

[binau]

Posted: 7/27/19 at 9:51am

I do think we have to distinguish between AIDS progression after diagnosis and after initial infection. At what age could Mimi have been infected that would make progressive to AIDS realistic at age 19 while also taking AZT? Perhaps due to a wide variety of individual differences, it doesn't really matter and it could be realistic. But my understanding is that, while yes you may die months or weeks after HIV diagnosis, it is probably unlikely (if not impossible) to die months or weeks after the initial HIV infection.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 7/27/19 at 10:15am

orangeskittles said: "EllieRose2 said: "At the time of the musical, AZT was brand new

AZT was approved in America in 1987. The musical takes place in 1994. So, no, it was not."

AZT was approved in America in 1987, but it wasn't immediately available for everyone who needed it. Also itcost $10K a year until the 1990s.It's not improbablethat someone like Mimi wouldn't have had access to it until recently."

Read the script.

[ArtMan]

Posted: 7/27/19 at 11:28am

The medical diagnosis of AIDS back then (and probably still now) was if your T cells fell under 200 and/or one came down  with  an opportunistic disease that was associated with AIDS.  If your T cells were 50 then you had a diagnosis of AIDS.  If they raised back up to say 350  you were now just HIV positive.  I don't believe that once you have a diagnosis of AIDS and you can better through medication, etc, you always have that diagnosis.  I may be wrong.  I have a friend in Ft Lauderdale who had a 40 T cell count in 1989 and was diagnosed with AIDS.  He currently has a T cell count of 1000 and his doctors, according to him, only classify him as living with HIV, not AIDS.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 7/27/19 at 2:13pm

Skip23 said: "Well, RENT was never fully developed, so Mimi could have, or NOT have AIDS. I mean, she makes a miraculous recovery from whatever it is she had, so...anything seems to go."

It's never stated that Mimi recovers. She breaks through from a near-death experience, lots of people do. Since that's the end of the show we don't see any follow up, and we don't get any sort of post-script epilogue. She could relapse the next day and be dead by New Year's for all we know.

[HogansHero]

Posted: 7/27/19 at 3:02pm

AEA AGMA SM said: "It's never stated that Mimi recovers.She breaks through from a near-death experience, lots of people do. Since that's the end of the show we don't see any follow up, and we don't get any sort of post-script epilogue. She could relapse the next day and be dead by New Year's for all we know."

Absolutely correct and in the context of the time setting, I don't think anyone would have had to ask if she was in some sort of remission. I was not being snarky when I said folks need to read the script (e.g., "<beep beep beep> AZT break" but it is also the case that some here simply and perhaps understandably don't understand that, at the time, both Roger and Mimi had a death sentence, irrespective of the HIV/ARC/AIDS labels. 

[EllieRose2]

Posted: 7/27/19 at 4:20pm

"Read the script."

Do you mean the book? Haha. Thanks, unhelpful as usual. 

 

[CouchPotatoLatke]

Posted: 7/27/19 at 4:23pm

I always thought "...hello, disease." referred to Mimi's heroin addiction.  

[Speed]

Posted: 7/27/19 at 5:00pm

EllieRose2 said: ""Read the script."

Do you mean the book? Haha. Thanks, unhelpful as usual.

"

Script and book are two different things.  Book is overall structure AND dialogue.  Jesus Christ Superstar has a book despite not having dialogue.  It is absolutely accurate to say “read the script.”