1985

In 1985, I was a young intern at a hospital outside of Detroit, Michigan.  The nation that summer was in the grips of something unknown and terrifying and a fourteen year old boy from Kokomo, Indiana was at the center of the storm.  His name was Ryan White and he had AIDS.  Frightened parents prohibiting their children from playing at the city pool or taking up petitions to prevent a child's access to education were common stories on the evening news that summer.  So too were the skeletor images of Rock Hudson, who until that summer, was able to keep private his sexual orientation from the world.

We talked alot about universal precautions that summer - a principle where all patients were considered carriers of blood borne pathogens.  We educated ourselves on the transmission mediums for HIV and "gloving up" became the standard.  I remember very serious conversations about a virus that was running rampant in specific demographics of our society and I remember irrational behavior borne out of fear.

Almost three decades have now passed.  In the intervening years, I have met men and women, straight and gay, single and married with children who are HIV positive.  One of my very dear friends who has been a cornerstone of my life for years has been HIV positive for quite awhile.  I am troubled by a growing number of middle aged single men and women who assume they are somehow immune to infection and chose not to take precautions.  I am vaguely concerned that we do little to raise awareness with the next generation who have come to age in an era where there were no little red ribbons pinned to lapels on award shows. I am disappointed that the public health sector, who provided such a solid foundation of education on the disease at its origin, has largely remained silent over the last decade in promoting awareness of prevention activites.

Mostly, I have been disturbed by a Facebook posting of a Sister in the Zambian mission field from several weeks ago.  "AIDS has taken one of my most enthusiastic computer students and local police officer tonight. Tried to help and wish I could have done more. Such a sad & helpless feeling. +RIP friend."  The stigma of this disease continues to cast a long and dark shadow over an entire continent.

AIDS is both preventable and treatable.  On this, World AIDS Awareness Day, I take a moment to reflect on and give thanks for the progress science has made in the last three decades for treating HIV and AIDS.  And I take a moment of silence to pray for a global de-stigmatization of the disease so that more lives can be saved.  I hope that you will join with me in remembering how far we have come, and how much farther we have yet to go.