Today is World AIDS Day. The 24th World AIDS Day, to be exact. Let’s take a look at some sobering statistics, shall we?
According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), as of January 2010, an estimated 34 million people were living with HIV worldwide, up 17% from 2001. This number reflects both an increase in the number of infections and a reduction in AIDS-related deaths due to increased access to effective antiretroviral therapy. UNAIDS also reports that the number of people dying of AIDS-related causes fell to 1.8 million in 2010, down from a peak of 2.2 million in the mid-2000s. Promisingly, approximately 2.5 million deaths were prevented in low- and middle-income countries since 1995 due to the introduction of antiretroviral therapy. Much of that success has come in the past two years when rapid scale-up of access to treatment occurred; in 2010 alone, 700,000 AIDS-related deaths were averted.
And while advances in the treatment are incredibly heartening to those of us living with HIV, the more important global goal is to stop the spread of HIV. Educating some of the world’s most at-risk populations, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, presents unique challenges. What most of us overlook is the maddening ignorance outside our own front door.
The Chief Executive of the UK’s National AIDS Trust reported recently that HIV is more prevalent in London than any other part of the country, with one in 200 people living with the virus, adding that “On a busy Tube journey, there may be two or three people who are HIV positive on the train with you.” Recent studies as far as the microcosm of the United Kingdom is concerned, 54% of new HIV infections were caused through heterosexual conduct and, perhaps most chillingly, roughly a quarter of Infected Britons don’t know that they are positive. The US boasts only a slightly lower rate of one in five.
Whither education and awareness in the First World? Experts are pointing to the fact that HIV/AIDS has “dropped off the radar” in recent years.
It was almost a decade ago that Vanity Fair produced a celebrity-stuffed cover proclaiming AIDS to be “The Four Letter Word That Everyone Forgot.” What has happened in the decade since? Treatment has improved. People are living longer. The World has new problems. And consequently, HIV/AIDS is no longer in the spotlight. When was the last time you saw a PSA for safe sex? Remember the 80’s, when you couldn’t turn on a network without seeing one? AIDS was everywhere. And even if the information wasn’t fully formed, at least people were talking.
Today, the message is significantly dulled. If you live in a major metropolitan area, you might be aware of annual fundraising events (New York’s “Broadway Bares” comes to mind), and GAP has that great (Red) campaign, but beyond that, HIV/AIDS seems to have lost its cultural cache. Which would be fine, except in losing that, the message that education is essential seems to have been lost as well. A recent study carried out by Ipsos MORI for the National AIDS Trust showed that roughly 20 per cent of people do not know HIV can be passed between a man and woman by having sex without a condom, and one in ten incorrectly believe HIV can be transmitted through kissing. Worse, only 30 per cent can correctly identify all the ways HIV can and cannot be passed on.
As someone living with HIV, I can tell you the thing that upsets me most, apart from the ignorant hatred spewed at people such as myself in the void of the internet (God wants me to get sick and die. Or so I’ve heard.), is the willful ignorance among those I know and love. Living with HIV is no longer the tragic death sentence it once was, at least for those of us lucky enough to have health insurance or live in a country which provides free health care, but it’s still not something I would wish on my worst enemy. Facing your own mortality is not exactly a good time. Staring at your own hands and realizing that there is a microscopic something coursing through your veins by the millions, slowly killing you, is an experience that will rob you of your breath and, at least temporarily the first time it registers, your sanity. Which is why I am continually gobsmacked at how insanely ill-informed so many of my contemporaries remain after over two decades of AIDS.
I can’t tell you how many of my friends, sexually active adults living in major metropolitan areas, lack even the most basic knowledge about the spread of HIV/AIDS. It’s terrifying. A 35-year old gay man I know who lives in New York called me one night almost in tears, because he had kissed someone who was positive and was worried he had been infected (No, he wasn’t calling from 1984). This gem was followed by the revelation that he had, at 35, never been tested. A 32-year old female friend called me hysterical because I had been holding her infant daughter at brunch and she noticed a cut on my hand and wanted to know if I had put my hands near the baby’s mouth and if she could catch HIV from me. A 40-year old friend, a gay flight attendant, told me once over dinner (he doesn’t know I’m positive) that “It’s a whore’s disease. I don’t worry about it. It’s for sluts.” (For the record, yes, I was a slut, but I contracted HIV due to a condom neither I nor my partner noticed was broken. And prior to testing positive, I was tested every 4 months like clockwork).
In each of these cases, I believe I had no choice but to quell the urge to eat my own head, take the offending party by the hand and give them a quick lesson in HIV/AIDS for Dummies. Indignance would have accomplished nothing, save to send them back out into the world in the same dangerous, offensive state of cluelessness. Provision of facts and the web address for the CDC and various AIDS resources not only cure them of their gross misconceptions, but, hopefully, provided them with knowledge beyond what was necessary to correct what I can only assume was the tip of the wrong-headed iceberg.
These are all educated, rational adults who grew up in the shadow of HIV/AIDS. These are people who were inundated with the message and the imagery throughout the 80’s and early 90’s. One only needs to look to the internet to see what the decade since Vanity Fair‘s proclamation has wrought: Bareback (that’s condomless for the hetero folks) hookup websites. Churches preaching cure through prayer and convincing people to go off their meds, effectively killing them. The comments on any article with the letters HIV or AIDS in the title on CNN.com. The list goes on.
The AIDS crisis reached its peak in the late 1980’s. That’s about 25 years ago. Have we forgotten so much so quickly? It’s time that HIV/AIDS education became an important part of the conversation again. If the MTV generation displays this level of ignorance, one can only wonder how much worse it can get.
The first step is for individuals to become aware and, consequently to educate and protect themselves, so that they can confidently field the questions posed by their friends. So read this aloud to yourself: HIV/AIDS is still a serious problem. The risks are real, and education is the best weapon.
There. You’re officially aware.
A few quick facts:
- HIV can be transmitted through: unprotected vaginal, anal, and (very rarely) oral sex; blood transfusions; from mother to child during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding; or by sharing syringes or needles.
- HIV can not be transmitted through: kissing; shaking hands; social contact; or sharing plates and silverware.
- Abstaining from sex or using condoms every time you have sex are the best methods to prevent HIV infection
- HIV can take up to 12 weeks to show up on certain blood tests.
- There is still no cure for HIV/AIDS.
Now do something about it. Know the facts. Know your status. Get Tested and Get Educated. Please. Do it for me. If not me, do it for you.
Helpful links:
- amfAr, About HIV/AIDS: http://www.amfar.org/abouthiv/default.aspx?id=3346
- US National HIV Testing Resources: http://www.hivtest.org/
- UK HIV Testing: www.better2know.co.uk
- UK National AIDS Trust: www.nat.org.uk
