A Time to Pause

Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day.

While some may scratch their head and ask, “Is that thing still around?,” since AIDS, as it relates to the United States, has been out of the news more often than not during the past few years, the reality is that, unfortunately, AIDS is still here and the number of new infections in young adults and teens between 13 and 29 are on the rise.

It is estimated that every 9.5 minutes, someone in the United States is infected with HIV the virus that leads to AIDS.

Since 1981, more than 1.7 million Americans have been infected with HIV and some 600,000 have died. It is also estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of individuals infected with the HIV virus who do not know it because they have not been tested. Each year in this country approximately 63,000 persons contract HIV.

Globally there are 40 to 44 million persons living with HIV and 50 percent of them are women. Statistically, heterosexual women are the fastest growing group of new HIV infections.

For some individuals, the initial media attention in the 1980s which deemed HIV/AIDS a “gay cancer,” put an immediate halt to any interest they might have had in following the progress of this insidious invader. Their knowledge remains trapped in the 80s and the plethora of new information has been disregarded.

You can’t get AIDS from a mosquito, from a toilet seat, or from kissing. Thirty years of extensive research has not found anything to support those fallacies.

In the latter 80s, I was fortunate enough to be misdiagnosed as HIV-Positive.

Why fortunate? Because like any major upheaval in our lives, it forces us to not only confront our mortality but to look at our priorities and evaluate and make changes to our lives. You suddenly realize that it can and does happen to anyone but there is something that can be done.

After a number of tests, I was found to be HIV-Negative and remain so.  Unfortunately, for too many others, there is no such “miracle.” For each person infected there are countless other lives that are impacted - husbands, wives, parents, children, friends and other loved ones.

While New Hampshire has not been ravaged by this disease to the extent of some states, AIDS has claimed hundreds of lives in the Granite State with between 1,400 and 1,700 people living with HIV/AIDS.

The emotional impact on those individuals as well as the tens of thousands of family and friends that surround them is enormous. The financial toll is also great because of the high costs of medications. Although many of those infected would like to work, too often the side-effects of necessary medications render them unable to do so.

Recently, I spoke to a packed hall at an area University about my recent book, “Was That a Name I Dropped?”

During the hour of questions that followed my talk, dozens of questions revolved around AIDS and the paucity of information that is readily available. It is clear that we need to do more around education in order to prevent the number of infections from rising further.

On World AIDS Day, however, we need to put aside all of our differences and remember those we have lost and those who deal, daily, with the physical and emotional turmoil caused by HIV/AIDS. New Hampshire is known for being one of the most caring and compassionate places to live. I hope we can all step back together and say a silent prayer.