It had manifested itself in my
first partner as far back as 1981 when there wasn't even a name for the
disease. Though we were no longer together, the day the space shuttle
Challenger exploded on January 28th, 1986 he was diagnosed with full blown
AIDS. A little over a year later he died.
In the early '90's I chose my battle
and devoted myself to HIV/AIDS-infected women and children. By the mid-'90's I
was on the Board of Directors of Northern Lights Alternative, a non-profit
committed to HIV/AIDS-infected children and their families. Aside from this
work, I provided respite to two families who had infected children. The first
child beat it, but the second one to whom I was a Big Brother from the age of
five, died in 2000 two months shy of his 13th birthday ~ I was devastated.
Where are we today? Some people think it's OK to have unprotected sex in casual
relationships because there is a cocktail of drugs to ward off AIDS, but they
don't know the medical and physical challenges that HIV-infected individuals
undergo. The numbers in the Latino and Black communities are still growing in
the U.S. and from Russia to Africa there are alarming high numbers and those
afflicted in underdeveloped countries find drugs exorbitant in price or medical
care unattainable.
This is why once a year we must stop collectively, as
individuals and governments, and reflect on how to develop a tangible strategy
in beating this monster of a virus and provide sustainable medical support for
millions across the planet.
