World AIDS Day: What You Should Know and What You Can Do

Princeton SCAG

by Shannon Togawa Mercer

Yesterday was World AIDS Day, and the Princeton Student Global AIDS Campaign (SCAG), along with a surprising number of local organizations, has set out displays and will hold events all week to increase awareness of the AIDS epidemic.

They’re taking care of that end, so I want to dive into the real deal: What’s up with the AIDS epidemic in 2009?

As of 2008 we (the world) have:

• 33.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS (in 1990 there were only 8 million)
• 2.1 million children living with HIV/AIDS
• More than 25 million people have died from HIV/AIDS since 1981
• More than 14 million AIDS orphans

In America:

• It is thought that about 1.1 million people are living with HIV/AIDS.
• About 66% of women who contract HIV/AIDS in America contract it through high-risk heterosexual contact.
• Injection drug use is the next biggest mode of infection in this country.

(statistics collected from www.avert.org and the CDC February 2009 report)

These statistics seem bad, but the picture becomes even bleaker when you consider all of the cases of HIV/AIDS, both in America and worldwide, that go unreported. Currently, it is estimated that 20% of infected Americans don’t know that they’re infected!

That statistic – about 1 out of every 5 HIV positive Americans aren’t aware of it - is staggering, especially when you think about what it means: it means that we are farther away from ending this epidemic than we should be.

“Should” is a strong word. I usually refrain from making normative statements, but I say “should” because the HIV/AIDS epidemic provides the average person with two types of solution:

1. The possible (the doable, that which is accessible to the common person)
2. The seemingly impossible (medical and scientific solutions)

The things that we should be able to do are things that we can do with almost no specialized skill:

1. Encourage people to get tested
2. Get tested
3. Encourage safe sex
4. Practice safe sex
5. Promote needle exchange programs
6. Donate to HIV/AIDS  research
7. Call your politicians and express your opinion whenever significant HIV/AIDS legislation is on the table
8. Talk about it, learn about it, think about it

These are all straightforward things and they are all within our abilities. You can contribute to the fight against AIDS!