Is this really news???
So, for the past couple months, I've been delving into research on HIV/AIDS. Currently, I'm reading a book entitled "And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic." It has been a very eye-opening read, that actually makes me disgusted over the way America handled the AIDS epidemic in the early 80's. That's a whole other issue though.
I was checking out the latest news on CNN regarding AIDS yesterday, & found the article linked to this post's title. Now, my question is this: Since AIDS predominately affected "young black gay men, black women and white gay men in their 30s and 40s", how is the reaffirmation of this today anything new? Due to the serious homophobic state our country was in when this disease first began to arise, the only news play the story received was when it was regarding white people. Unfortunately, while hundreds of lives were being lost, the government and the general public turned a blind eye due to the who of the disease rather than the what & the how come.
Another quote from this article - "the HIV infection rate for 2006 is much worse than previously thought" makes me wonder what is really going on. This is the same story that was going on in the 80's. No one wanted to know how many people were being affected by this disease, and the numbers reported were often altered. Add to that the fact that even after AIDS was recognized and thus named, many doctors & politicians refused to accept and admit the growing number being diagnosed.
On a more positive note though, one article points out how "antiretroviral therapies have turned HIV and AIDS into more of a chronic illness rather than a death sentence." (CDC: More Americans HIV-positive than previously believed by Miriam Falco) This is not to say that AIDS research is anywhere near complete or fully comprehensive, or that it is not a difficult, and often debilitating disease. This gives me hope though. And with that little bit of hope, I find myself more ready than ever to do my part to try and make a difference.
I was checking out the latest news on CNN regarding AIDS yesterday, & found the article linked to this post's title. Now, my question is this: Since AIDS predominately affected "young black gay men, black women and white gay men in their 30s and 40s", how is the reaffirmation of this today anything new? Due to the serious homophobic state our country was in when this disease first began to arise, the only news play the story received was when it was regarding white people. Unfortunately, while hundreds of lives were being lost, the government and the general public turned a blind eye due to the who of the disease rather than the what & the how come.
Another quote from this article - "the HIV infection rate for 2006 is much worse than previously thought" makes me wonder what is really going on. This is the same story that was going on in the 80's. No one wanted to know how many people were being affected by this disease, and the numbers reported were often altered. Add to that the fact that even after AIDS was recognized and thus named, many doctors & politicians refused to accept and admit the growing number being diagnosed.
On a more positive note though, one article points out how "antiretroviral therapies have turned HIV and AIDS into more of a chronic illness rather than a death sentence." (CDC: More Americans HIV-positive than previously believed by Miriam Falco) This is not to say that AIDS research is anywhere near complete or fully comprehensive, or that it is not a difficult, and often debilitating disease. This gives me hope though. And with that little bit of hope, I find myself more ready than ever to do my part to try and make a difference.
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