Another December 1st and another World AIDS Day. This year in fact is the 20th anniversary of the commemoration.
Around the world, 33 million people are living with HIV with nearly 7,500 new infections occurring each day. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that about 1.1 million people live with HIV, while the country has yet to enact a national AIDS policy. There is hope that President-elect Barack Obama will make this a priority.
The statistics change little from year to year. What does seem to change however is the level of attention paid not only to this day but to the virus and the epidemic itself. Interest in “AIDS issues” seems to be on the decline. Popular perception is that anti-retroviral medications have made HIV a manageable disease or that it’s really only a problem in third world nations.
World AIDS Day has started to become almost a private little affair, marked only by those directly affected but otherwise unnoticed by the vast majority of people. There will be the usual public readings of the names of those who have passed, church services and solemn tributes, and people will wear red ribbons. The nightly news will stick a story somewhere in the middle of the broadcast. But most Americans will go about their business oblivious to what this day means. They will also likely spend the next 364 days thinking that HIV/AIDS is “someone else’s problem” or that it only affects people who “deserved” to get it. On a day when education and public awareness should be at it’s highest, there remain those who willfully disengage on this issue.
For this commemoration to have any lasting impact, we must connect with more people in more ways and on a broader range of intersecting issues, beyond this single day.
When we are talking about health care disparities and how millions of Americans work without health coverage, we are talking about a contributor to the HIV epidemic because people with no health insurance are less likely to know their status or to seek treatment in a timely manner.
When we talk about economic inequities that force people into homelessness, we are talking about a major contributor to the spread of HIV because many of those who become infected have been forced to compromise their values and their bodies just to find a place to stay.
When we don’t talk about homophobia, or do anything about it, we are contributing to the marginalization of an entire group of people, which has been proven to have a negative impact on the self-esteem and self-worth of gay men, increasing their likelihood of engaging in high-risk behavior.
When we cut funds for AIDS outreach, education and treatment, we only exacerbate the problem.
This disease affects everyone, in ways some may not even be aware. The sooner we acknowledge this fact, the closer we’ll come to holding the last World AIDS Day.