Today is World AIDS Day. It’s hard to believe that it has been 23 years since the first global health day was held. Remarkable strides have been made in both medical advancements and understanding of HIV/AIDS during the past two decades. As the result of strong and concerted efforts towards improvements in science and technology, many HIV- positive people are able to live long and productive lives despite the presence of the virus. Antiretroviral treatments are helping to lengthen life spans and technological progress has helped to reduce the spread of the virus from mother to child. Thanks to better information and the above mentioned factors, an HIV diagnosis is no longer a death sentence.
Nonetheless, we still have a long way to go — and today presents an opportunity for everyone to get involved. How? We can educate ourselves about the virus, how it spreads and what can be done to curb it. We can wear symbols, such as the red ribbon, to show our awareness and pass our information on to others — and we can raise funds for organisations that, among other things, keep pressure on our elected officials to fund research and care for those who are afflicted with the disease.
Many of us are hoping for and looking forward to the day when HIV and AIDS are in the history books. We hope that this will be another virus and disease conquered by the will of people to push for solutions to this problem. We raise our voices for many issues…but no issue takes priority over good health.
For more on one aspect of our point of view, see this article previously posted on Borderless News and Views:
http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/2011/11/its-not-going-away/
For more information on World AIDS Day click here:
