We believe: AIDS is not the hot topic it once was, but it still affects a large number of people.
The AIDS pandemic still rages throughout the world, but it doesn’t get the press coverage it used to. According to the article on Page 1 Sunday, 210 people in Madison County have AIDS or HIV, which causes AIDS. They are living with it day by day.
According to fohn.net, 40 million people are living with the disease worldwide, and all are expected to die in the next 20 years. It’s a chilling assessment of a scourge and a reminder to all that the disease is stealing the lives of a generation with no sign of abatement.
When AIDS was identified in the 1980s, it was commonly thought to infect only homosexuals. In fact, early on it was called GRID (gay-related immune deficiency). It was soon determined that AIDS could strike anyone who came into contact with the blood of someone infected. Kokomo’s Ryan White was living — and dying — proof of this when he was infected due to a blood transfusion for his hemophilia.
The HIV virus was traced to a subspecies of chimpanzee in West-Central Africa in the 1990s, which was the same area where humans began developing the disease.
Despite research, there has been no vaccination developed for AIDS. There is an anti-HIV drug, which may have slowed the process, but eradication doesn’t seem to be on the horizon. People live with HIV and die of AIDS depending on how damaged their immune systems are from fighting the virus.
Other diseases, such as cancer and pneumonia, are exacerbated by AIDS because the body is simply too weak to counteract them.
Monday is World AIDS Day, the 20th anniversary of the event. In 1988, AIDS was much discussed, and research received plenty of funding. It’s hoped that the research increases, despite the lack of coverage about the disease. Most new cases, according to fohn.net, are in developing countries. But the United States cannot take a lax attitude toward the disease.
The killer is all around us, wherever we live in this country. According to the Madison County Community Health Center, the 210 figure is an underrepresentation, according to Dariusz Mydlarz, MCCHC associate medical director.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people have it and don’t know it,” he says. Mydlarz adds that the number of cases increases by a few each year.
It’s imperative that everyone be aware of AIDS, what it is and how it is contracted. Prevention begins with each of us, but it’s also important to find a cure to alleviate the misery of so many people. The disease affects more than just their health. Relationships and work also suffer because AIDS is partially a social disease, with all the stigmas that implies.
We encourage people to attend the World AIDS Day community prayer service Monday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 11th and Fletcher streets. Mydlarz will be there, as will HIV-positive Brad Lawson, who is concerned for people with AIDS.
“Too many of us and too little resources; it’s a mathematical certainty that some of us are going to put by the wayside,” he says. We should be determined not to let that happen.
