why is AIDS back in the news?

I know that you've probably been seeing a lot of AIDS stuff in the news lately. In fact, it's probably been going on for the past month. If you have noticed this, why haven't you asked your friendly neighborhood AIDS activist? June marks the 25th anniversary of the publication of the first published report on AIDS.

I recently saw the PBS Frontline documentary, The Age of AIDS, and I was very impressed. It was good stuff, let me tell you! So incredibly informative. So incredibly real. It depressed me. Part one aired on Tuesday and it was very difficult to watch, yet it was so compelling I just had to keep watching. After all, I was only 2 when the MMWR article came out. The images of young Gay men, young Africans--even small children--with wasting syndrome were horrific and incendiary. How is it possible that we enabled the spread of the virus with our fear, ignorance, stigma, and silence? With a lump forming in my throat, I watched footage of religious conservatives claiming the virus was sent from God, His way of ridding the Earth of the unwanted, the unnatural--drug addicts, homosexuals. In my classes and internships, I had heard stories about how AIDS was handled in the early 80s. Seeing it on screen made it real and even more difficult to accept our country's response.

My earliest recollection of AIDS was watching Magic Johnson's press conference announcing he was HIV-positive (Nov. 1991). I remember being very upset because I thought Magic was going to die. I hated the Lakers even then but I knew Magic was a great talent. Even today, he looks incredibly healthy, probably with an undetectable viral load. It wasn't until 8 years later and I was doing research with HIV+'s at USC that I realized that many postives aren't as lucky as Magic.

Fortunately, in the United States, AIDS doesn't have to be the death sentence that it was in the 80s. People are living longer with the disease. ADAP provides AIDS drugs to those who can't afford it. There is promising research going on that may lead to a vaccine some day. We've even located the group of chimpanzees that contains the origins of a major group of HIV types. So what is all this AIDS media attention all about? Well, first of all, there is no cure. Secondly the current administration believes that abstinence willl solve everything. Finally, AIDS continues to kill millions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and India where HIV incidence is still high. The world is not only plagued by AIDS, it is also plagued by stigma and ignorance--AIDS catalysts. Maybe when stigma and ignorance disappear we will have a world without AIDS.