Correction appended below
The face of AIDS is not a child in Africa, malnourished and surrounded by flies, begging to be saved by corporations, individuals and foundations from the West. AIDS is not a faraway problem we can turn our backs on.
It is a pandemic that has killed more than 25 million people since it was first identified in 1981. It exists not only in developing countries with insufficient access to education, contraception and treatment but also in our own backyards. Education, specifically among our youth, is imperative in attacking the disease at its roots.
Experts estimate that at least 40 million people are living with HIV and AIDS, and that an additional 45 million people in 126 countries will be infected before 2010. Faster testing, such as the OraQuick Rapid HIV-1 Antibody Test that provides results within an hour, and treatments, such as protease inhibitors, have prolonged the lives of many people.
But this is a skin-deep solution. Higher learning increasingly offers students the opportunity to give back to impoverished and disadvantaged communities. This trend of community-service learning among college-aged students, one of the most susceptible groups to contracting the disease, is imperative to destigmatize HIV.
During spring break, a team of 12 students from freshmen to seniors traveled to New York City, which has one of the nation’s highest concentration of AIDS patients. They went to learn about the impact of this disease. They worked to increase awareness and education, and served patients at the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center, which houses more than 150 AIDS sufferers.
For nine hours every day for a week, these students met sufferers of this ugly, life-threatening disease. They saw AIDS patients without family and friends to offer comfort and support. They played board games with former drug users who contracted HIV from sharing needles. They shared stories with homosexuals and heterosexuals, with monogamous men and women of all ages and nationalities, who contracted HIV from their partners.
“AIDS does not discriminate,” said Vanessa Geffrard, a junior public and community health major and one of the trip leaders for the university’s Alternative Spring Break, which offers service-learning trips to cities around the world. “Our trip to New York was an eye-opener,” she said.
An almost one million people in the United States have HIV and AIDS. In New York City alone, an estimated 97,000 people are infected. The number is underreported and reflects only a percentage of cases.
The stigma associated with the disease causes some people to avoid reporting their infection. Others don’t know they have it. The failure to know one’s personal sexual health has the potential to spread a life-threatening disease like wildfire.
The stigmatization of AIDS, many people’s feelings of invincibility and the idea it will never happen to one’s self work together to prevent the sharing of information about sexual history. There must be greater encouragement, especially among students to get tested. The question, “How many people have you slept with?” should not be avoided as too personal. It should be expected.
HIV and AIDS cause nearly five percent of total deaths worldwide, following heart and cerebrovascular diseases and lower respiratory infections. It ranks fourth as a killer. More than half of all new HIV infections occur among people under 25. This disheartening statistic can be mitigated with consistent and correct use of prophylactics coupled with greater education about them.
AIDS can be prevented by understanding its causes and consequences, working with health care providers and volunteering with victims of the disease, who can share their personal stories and put a name, face and personality behind a foreign, fatal illness.
Paula Vasan is a senior journalism major and participated in this year’s Alternative Spring Break trip to New Orleans. She can be reached at pmvasan@gmail.com.
Editors note: The title of this column was changed from its original version.
