World AIDS day December 1st

[southsider2k5]

Wear the Red Ribbon on December 1: World AIDS Day 

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov 30, 2005 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- December 1 is World

AIDS Day and activities throughout the globe will focus on education, outreach

and awareness. This year, all people concerned with HIV/AIDS are encouraged to

wear a red ribbon -- a sign of support for people living with HIV and a symbol

of hope for the future.

 

"All Americans should take time to learn more about HIV/AIDS and the impact to

our country and nations abroad," remarked J. Donald Schumacher, president and

CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. "This global

pandemic has been felt in every community, touching many lives the world over.

Wearing a red ribbon on December 1 is a simple way that each of us can

contribute to ongoing awareness efforts."

 

Hospice providers have played a significant part in the history of care for

those living with HIV/AIDS. Hospices in the U.S. have long been committed to

bringing comfort, compassion, and dignity to those dying as a result of

HIV/AIDS. Groups, like the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa

(http://www.fhssa.org), support African organizations providing home based

hospice and palliative care, predominantly to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

 

 

HIV and AIDS around the World:*

    -- 40 million people living with HIV worldwide (2.2 m children.)

    -- 5 million people newly infected with HIV in 2004.

    -- 700,000 people currently receive anti-HIV drugs in developing

      countries.

    -- 90% of people living with HIV are in developing countries.

    -- HIV is increasing fastest in East Asia, Eastern Europe and Central

      Asia.

    -- Only 12% of people needing anti-HIV drugs in developing countries

      receive them.

    -- Anti-HIV drugs cost on average US$300 per person per year.

    -- 3 million people died of AIDS in 2003.

    -- Over 20 million total AIDS deaths to date.

 

Learn more about World AIDS Day at http://www.worldaidsday.org. Information on

hospice is available from NHPCO at http://www.caringinfo.org or by calling the

HelpLine at 800-658-8898. Learn more about FHSSA at http://www.fhssa.org.

 

* SOURCE: All international statistics are from UNAIDS, 2004 last updated:

December 2004.

[Soxy]

My friend and I were talking about this yesterday (prompted by Rent), and it seems like AIDS is so much less of a "forefront" idea these days. I remember when I was younger, through, maybe the mid/late 90s it was so huge in the public's mind and I really feel like now it's faded away from that consciousness.

[Soxy]

Bump, because it's important

 

(and I liked her column)

 

Dawn Turner Trice

The new face of HIV/AIDS: Black women

 

 

Published December 1, 2005

 

Remember when newscaster Gwen Ifill was moderating the vice presidential debate last year and she asked Dick Cheney and then-Sen. John Edwards what they proposed to do about the growing number of African-American women infected with HIV?

 

Both candidates' faces turned ghostly white. Clearly, neither had a clue that black women are so disproportionately affected. And the truth is many Americans, on this World AIDS Day 2005, still don't know.

 

"In the 1980s and 1990s, we told people to use condoms, and then we walked away," said Cathy Christeller, Chicago Women's AIDS Project executive director. "The assumption was that women had gotten the information, had access to condoms and had the power to make their partner use them."

 

Those assumptions were wrong.

 

In Chicago, according to the city Department of Public Health, African-American women made up 78 percent of newly diagnosed HIV cases among women from 2002 to 2003, even though they made up only 37 percent of the female population.

 

To be clear, the highest numbers of new HIV cases in the city and across the nation are still among men who have sex with men. And the racial disparity between blacks and whites who have HIV is still huge.

 

But experts say the increase in HIV among black women is particularly striking because this group is so hard to target when getting the word out about HIV prevention and treatment.

 

Back in the day, safe sex campaigns targeted gay men at risk for contracting HIV. Clean needle campaigns targeted intravenous drug users.

 

"But it's far trickier to get to black women at risk," said Christeller. "Women most at risk often have partners who are infected. We tell women that marriage isn't a protector against HIV. Neither is a boyfriend who says, `You don't have to worry, I don't have a disease.'"

 

Women have to take charge of protecting themselves. Black women, especially, have to understand that AIDS is not just a "gay" disease or one that only affects women who are drug abusers or prostitutes.

 

The stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS remains high in the black community. So does the level of denial.

 

"That means black women who are infected don't get the care and treatments we now have," Christeller said. "They don't get tested. When they do, they don't want to tell anyone. And they don't want to get services that are available, because they fear someone may be aware they're taking meds."

 

Christeller said the community has to come together so that women can embolden and educate one another.

 

Prevention is key. But if you've already contracted HIV, early treatment and careful monitoring may prevent this from developing into full-blown AIDS. In the 1980s, the early years of the disease, many who got AIDS fell sick and died from infections.

 

Treatment continues to get better, and contracting HIV doesn't have to be a death sentence. But you have to get tested, and preferably before you show signs of illness.

 

Testing is the big challenge, said Christeller. To get the word out, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago has enlisted several local agencies, including the Women's AIDS Project, to go into South Side and West Side beauty salons and other businesses catering to women.

 

The outreach effort, called the South Side Women's Collaborative, began this summer and is in 21 sites, including beauty salons, nail salons and shelters. The agencies are training staffers to talk to their patrons about HIV testing, prevention and treatment.

 

In salons, patrons often are accustomed to sharing some fairly intimate details about their lives, which makes these the perfect forums for talking about the disease. Besides, the women are a captive audience.

 

The collaborative provides its participating sites with female and male condom kits and, among other things, referral cards for HIV testing, which only takes about 20 minutes. (For information on testing, call the Chicago Women's AIDS Project at 773-955-8709.)

 

We think of HIV as an out-of-control epidemic in Africa. But clearly, it remains a big problem right here. Christeller said most people don't get tested because they're afraid that knowing their status will disrupt their lives.

 

The truth is, not knowing could be an even greater disruption.

[southsider2k5]

Pinned, because I agree with Soxy

[Soxy]

Why wear the red ribbon?

[sox4lifeinPA]

My friend and I were talking about this yesterday (prompted by Rent), and it seems like AIDS is so much less of a "forefront" idea these days. I remember when I was younger, through, maybe the mid/late 90s it was so huge in the public's mind and I really feel like now it's faded away from that consciousness.

 

actors and film makers used to spend their time on issues like this and ram it down our throats. Unfortunately, it seems more and more time and money is spent towards "we hate bush" campaigns and less and less for people in need.

 

that goes for both sides

[Balta1701]

actors and film makers used to spend their time on issues like this and ram it down our throats. Unfortunately, it seems more and more time and money is spent towards "we hate bush" campaigns and less and less for people in need.

 

that goes for both sides

I would say that there's another issue in that thanks to AIDS drugs, that disease is at least under some level of "Control" in this country - it's not growing exponentially any more, and only certain groups, which the media doesn't care about anyway, are really still having problems (see above post).

 

It's a lot harder to get U.S. citizens to care about people dying who aren't citizens of this country. We all know that. Right now the people being slaughtered by this virus are mainly in Africa and Asia. Our government has decided it has other priorities...foreign aid tends to not go over well with the U.S. populace (polls tend to show that significant minorities or even majorities of the people think a huge portion of the U.S. government's money goes to foreign aid, when it's well below 1%), and every time there's talk of forcing drug companies to cut their prices overseas, we're hit with the old "but we need that money to develop new drugs" canard.

[southsider2k5]

I would say that there's another issue in that thanks to AIDS drugs, that disease is at least under some level of "Control" in this country - it's not growing exponentially any more, and only certain groups, which the media doesn't care about anyway, are really still having problems (see above post).

 

It's a lot harder to get U.S. citizens to care about people dying who aren't citizens of this country.  We all know that.  Right now the people being slaughtered by this virus are mainly in Africa and Asia.  Our government has decided it has other priorities...foreign aid tends to not go over well with the U.S. populace (polls tend to show that significant minorities or even majorities of the people think a huge portion of the U.S. government's money goes to foreign aid, when it's well below 1%), and every time there's talk of forcing drug companies to cut their prices overseas, we're hit with the old "but we need that money to develop new drugs" canard.

Actually world wide the declines in infections rates that we were seeing have been reversed and they are back on the rise again. As AIDS has slipped from the front pages, it seems to have slipped out of peoples minds again.

[sox4lifeinPA]

geez...everyone's got a better sex life than me...

[Steff]

I would say that there's another issue in that thanks to AIDS drugs, that disease is at least under some level of "Control" in this country - it's not growing exponentially any more, and only certain groups, which the media doesn't care about anyway, are really still having problems (see above post).

 

 

 

 

Surreal..

[WilliamTell]

I didn't realize it was AIDS day today and when I went to school I was congratulated for wearing red. Guess I was lucky to wear red today.