Today is World AIDS day.
Dec. 1st, 2010 07:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanI remember a world before AIDS. I remember the way people tried to shove it into the "gay men" box, at first. I remember how people were terrified of even saying the name. I remember the shame that was shoved onto people who were infected, no matter how it happened. I remember when the disease exploded into the general population.
I remember when my first friend died of complications from AIDS.
I think, often, of how much the world has lost, because of AIDS. Not only the disease itself, which is terrible, but the fear and shame and denial that dimmed so many bright lights.
according to the most recent statistics*:
* 33.4 million people currently living with HIV/AIDS.
* Two million people died from AIDS in 2008.
* Young people aged 15-24 account for 40 percent of all new adult HIV cases.
* 2.1 million children are currently living with HIV, there were 430,000 new infections in 2008 and 280,000 deaths.
* There are approximately 17.5 million AIDS orphans - children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS - worldwide.
* 1.4 million North Americans living with AIDS in 2008, with 55,000 new cases.
You may not be able to do anything about that. But you can get tested. You can talk to your partner(s). You can talk to your kids, BEFORE they're sexually active, and after. You can use protection, if you're not sure about yourself OR your partner.
You can help save a life.
*via my Congresscritter's website
I remember when my first friend died of complications from AIDS.
I think, often, of how much the world has lost, because of AIDS. Not only the disease itself, which is terrible, but the fear and shame and denial that dimmed so many bright lights.
according to the most recent statistics*:
* 33.4 million people currently living with HIV/AIDS.
* Two million people died from AIDS in 2008.
* Young people aged 15-24 account for 40 percent of all new adult HIV cases.
* 2.1 million children are currently living with HIV, there were 430,000 new infections in 2008 and 280,000 deaths.
* There are approximately 17.5 million AIDS orphans - children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS - worldwide.
* 1.4 million North Americans living with AIDS in 2008, with 55,000 new cases.
You may not be able to do anything about that. But you can get tested. You can talk to your partner(s). You can talk to your kids, BEFORE they're sexually active, and after. You can use protection, if you're not sure about yourself OR your partner.
You can help save a life.
*via my Congresscritter's website
