World AIDS Day 2005

World AIDS Day has been acknowledged every December 1st since 1988. This is a day to bring global attention to a pandemic like one the world has never seen. In spite of the advances in medicine and treatments for HIV and it's complications, there is still no cure. What science has been able to do is make life more manageable for persons living with HIV/AIDS and the quality of life has improved significantly for persons living with HIV since the early days of the disease. Here are a few quick statistics that I got from the CDC's web site

• 20 million people have died of AIDS related complications world wide since 1981
• It's estimated that there are 1,039,000 to 1,185,000 HIV-positive individuals living in the U.S.
• There are 35,000 new infections that occur every year in the U.S.
• There were an estimated 39.4 million people worldwide living with HIV at the end of 2004

When looking at HIV among African Americans specifically the statistics look like this according to a CDC fact sheet:

• We have accounted for an estimated 39% of the total AIDS cases in the U.S. since the epidemic began up until 2002.
• We represented an estimated 54% of newly diagnosed HIV cases in 2002.
• Black Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) accounted for 31% of newly diagnosed AIDS cases among Black men in 2002.
• African American women were 59% of the total diagnosed AIDS cases among women through 2002
• African American children (13 & under) make up 59% of the total diagnosed AIDS cases through 2002

The statistics are daunting and indicate that we need to really wake up to this disease and arm ourselves with the information needed to prevent primary and secondary HIV infection. This years theme for World AIDS Day is "Action Makes A Difference". I think this is a fitting theme as action does make a difference. Depending on the actions you take will determine whether or not you will become infected if you are HIV-negative or infected with a different strain of HIV if you are already positive. Your actions may also make a difference as to whether or not you will infect someone else if you have HIV. The thing is, HIV is a preventable disease if one is willing to protect him or herself from it. For more information on how HIV is spread and ways to help protect yourself, click here or click on any of the HIV related links on the right panel of this web site.

This post is just one of a few I will be writing in the next month or so on this subject. Most of my career in the past 5 years has been related to HIV prevention, especially among Black Men who have Sex with Men. I'm currently involved in a new grass roots initiative here in Philadelphia looking at improving the overall health and well being of Black gay men. As Black same gender loving people we have dealt with the negative aspects of larger societies homophobia for too long as well as racism from the White heterosexual and GLBT community, and these issues have taken a great toll on our health and well being. A friend of mine says that homophobia causes AIDS. Well there is certainly some truth to that because just as the impact of racism has led to some of the dysfunction in the Black community, so has homophobia (and racism and sexism) to the psyche of Black gay men. More thoughts to come, so stay posted.

Remember December 1, 2005 is World AIDS Day. Wear your red ribbon in support of the day and check your local listings for events that are happening in your area.