Thursday, December 01, 2005

World AIDS Day...


Today is World AIDS Day. Today the media will assault our senses with facts and pictures of those afflicted and the children left behind. Facts like these;

People living with HIV as of December 2005 40.3 million

New HIV infections in 2005: 4.9 million

Total HIV deaths in 2005: 3.1 million

Tomorrow the media will focus on something else; but you and I, the world in general can not afford to file this story in the back of our minds, because Africa is dying. Africa the birthplace of civilization, the land where our ancestors (don’t tell this to the Christian coalition) evolved. In essence Africa is the motherland of the world. Africa has become the epicenter of a disease that has killed more than 25 million people since it came to light in 1981. In Sub- Saharan Africa in 2005, 2 ½ million people lost their lives to AIDS... 2 ½ million. Repeat those numbers to yourselves… give yourself a minute to take it in… 2 ½ million… 2 ½ million dead in one year. I can not even begin to wrap my head what that loss means to us as humans, entire universes dead, gone forever. Compare that to 30,000 in North Africa, West and Central Europe combined... 25.8 million adults and children are struggling with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. I wish it could just stop there at those numbers but it doesn’t, here’s another number for you 3.2 million. That is the new infections this year alone…this in a country that holds 10 percent of the worlds population but is accountable for more than 60 percent of all AIDS cases.

In my own city, New York, my brothers and sisters in the immigrant community are in state of crisis. Among the Carribean, Latino, and Asian immigrant community AIDS is spreading. Among the Caribbean’s 41,490 are infected. Cases are rising among women and children. Hispanics are 27 % of the NYC population and make up 31.8% of all documented HIV cases. Asia-Americans and Pacific islanders make up 1.1% of infected NY’ers but Asian/Pacific activists in the community say that this figure is wrong that there being under counted and that they are seeing a steady increase in Asians/Pacifics with HIV/AIDS and they feel it is only going to get worse.

I leave you with one more fact: For everyone 1 person diagnosed with AIDS there are 3-6 people living with an undiagnosed case of HIV.


Educate yourself on the facts and how YOU can help:

World AIDS Day- 1st December

Global AIDS Alliance

150 Basic AIDS Facts

Labels: AIDS, health, news items

Posted by @ 10:31 AM
1 comment from:  Emory Mayne,