AIDS Awareness Month: The War on AIDS

Dec 2

by AnnaLiese Burich ‘17

As college students, we were not alive during the original HIV/AIDS epidemic, so we might have a hard time taking it seriously. I know we are all well-educated, bright young college students who do our homework, so we know the logistics: in the late 80s, a good portion of society—a good amount in the gay community—were wiped out because of the horrible, incurable virus called
“human immunodeficiency virus” that caused “acquired immunodeficiency syndrome” that interferes with one’s ability to fight infection. We may have listened to or seen RENT, and we may have read or seen Angels In America (and if you haven’t experienced these two works of art, I highly encourage you to check them out) that deal with the grave emotional stakes behind HIV/AIDS. We may think we understand.

But we don’t, not truly. We weren’t there. We didn’t live in the constant fear that someone we know and love would be diagnosed with the infection, and we didn’t live in the fear that should someone we know and love be diagnosed, all we could do is watch him suffer while trying to make him as comfortable as possible in their last months.

Now, with modern science, we don’t have to live in this fear of certain death. Once diagnosed and treated properly and consistently, someone with HIV/AIDS can live a comparatively normal and long life. This treatment is wonderful, but it’s not a cure.

It’s not a cure: it’s not a cure for the millions upon millions of lives lost and families grieving, and it’s not a cure for those lost lives’ potential for greatness cut short due to the unforgiving disease. Even though the number of lives lost is dropping by about 25% every year, between 1995 and 2013, there were around 7.6 millions deaths globally due to HIV/AIDS.

And, it’s not even a cure for those who will not die from AIDS: they will be treated, but not cured. It is still our job as a society to commit to stopping the spread of the virus, and to educate others on the prevention and treatment of the virus.

Even though it’s treatable, it’s still considered an epidemic globally—there’s still an ongoing war between the virus and humans in Africa, whose death tolls were too high to humanly manage when it first hit, and there are still upwards of 50,000 infections per year in America.

Medicine has helped us win the battle, but not the war. It is still your duty to spread awareness to stop the spread of the virus. It is still your duty to practice safe sex, to do your research, to figure out where you can find the appropriate measures of protection in your local area.

We can win the war if we do our research, if we know the proper protection and the proper treatment. If someone you know is diagnosed help them get treated; if you are a human, use proper protection measures.

December 1^st was World AIDS Day, a day to remember those lost and recommit our efforts to win the war. Watch Dr. Valdiserri describe it better than I could, and remember to do your part in the war on AIDS.