It has been dubbed the Sheen effect: the ability of a celebrity to raise awareness by disclosing a condition. In Charlie Sheen’s case, it was HIV. On 17 November last year, when the actor announced he was HIV positive during an NBC interview, the number of Google-related searches containing the word “HIV” rocketed.
Last week, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Internal Medicine showed by how much – 417%.
It’s not the first time a famous person has had a significant impact on the world by disclosing the fact they have HIV or Aids, but – thanks to the internet – it’s the first time the effect has been measured so rigorously.
Did the celebrity effect exist before the internet? “HIV and celebrity have been closely linked from the beginning,” says Dominic Edwardes, a director at Terrence Higgins Trust. “From Rock Hudson to Charlie Sheen, the ‘story’ of HIV has been driven by celebrities who have it or high-profile supporters such as Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana.”
When the US basketball star Magic Johnson said he was HIV positive in 1991, the world realised that, as Johnson put it, “it can happen to anybody, even me”. It drove home the message that HIV was not a death sentence – Johnson continues to manage his condition with antiretroviral drugs.
But it was arguably the first high-profile declaration that had the greatest impact. After Rock Hudson collapsed in July 1985 in a hotel lobby in Paris, it was announced to the world that the US’s symbol of wholesome 50s masculinity was gay, and that he had Aids. Although thousands of people had already died of the disease, the announcement was considered by doctors to be the single most important event in the history of the epidemic. US coverage reportedly tripled, forever changing the public perception of Aids patients, not to mention gay men.
On 5 September 1991, Freddie Mercury died a day after revealing he had Aids. The remaining members of Queen raised millions for research and, in 1992, the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for Aids Awareness was broadcast live to 76 countries, reaching an audience of up to 1 billion people. “The Terence Higgins Trust benefited from the £1m proceeds of Bohemian Rhapsody’s rerelease, too,” Edwardes says. “His death was key to ensuring the future of the trust.”
An algorithm used to analyse data from the day of Sheen’s disclosure to 8 December last year found 2.8m more searches containing the word “HIV” than expected. Media coverage was up, too, ranking in the top 1%, compared with the previous seven years.
Even so, the celebrity effect can be a mixed blessing, says Edwardes. “Those ‘moments’ tend to be the ones that stick in people’s memories. It takes something new for people to update their knowledge.” The most crucial perception that has changed because of Sheen concerns the effectiveness of HIV medication, he says. “Medication stops you being infectious. It means you can’t pass on HIV, and Charlie Sheen has really helped get that message out there.”
