AIDS

India, home to the world's second-largest HIV population, may have found a perfect cocktail for safe sex – a free condom with every bottle of alcohol sold at liquor shops. Andhra Pradesh has made it mandatory for liquor shops to hand out a free condom with every bottle of alcohol they sell from December 1, the World AIDS Day. How is that for an education? Now where is the wine shop?

Whatever happened to AIDS? It flashes across front pages and television screens every Dec. 1 on World AIDS Day. Once considered a crisis, AIDS simply doesn't seem to be a priority any more. In one way this is just human nature. It's also a trap.


AIDS fundraising events report record low donations. U.S. AIDS prevention efforts are mired in debates over sexual ethics. Services that provide lifesaving medicines are running out of cash the world over.

For people at middle or higher income levels with access to the full AIDS drug cocktail, the crisis has lessened, And so I think the degree of personal fear that a lot of people felt in the past has probably decreased. Unfortunately, we all pay most attention to the things that seem immediate threats to us. That means we who are concerned about AIDS get less attention when we talk about the size of the problem.

There have been nearly a half-million U.S. deaths from AIDS. Nearly a million U.S. citizens are living with HIV infection -- and 40,000 were infected in the last year. Surveys show unsafe sexual behavior is on the rise. Much of this behavior is among new members of the population that only a few years ago turned the U.S. epidemic around: young gay men.

Prevention messages also are missing African-American and Hispanic men who have sex with men but do not think of themselves as gay. Last year most new HIV cases in Western Europe came from heterosexual sex -- yet American heterosexuals still feel little personal danger.


A quick look beyond U.S. borders offers a totally different picture. Every hour, 350 people die of AIDS in Africa alone. Another 42 million people have HIV infection; nearly all will die .In Africa, where nearly 70 percent of the world's AIDS infected people live, the condition hits women and girls hardest. More than half of the subcontinent's AIDS population is female.

India shares the dubious distinction of being ranked second in the AIDS population and has about 5.1 million AIDS patients and many aren’t receiving treatment at all. They are not nearly as blasé. . Cultural norms block females from health care and education needed to learn about AIDS prevention.

A cruel cycle exists: An AIDS-infected husband dies, leaving a wife destitute and often without the right to inherit his possessions. In turn, she may be forced into prostitution where she too becomes infected. Women are twice as likely to contract the AIDS virus from an infected partner. Only 1 in 10 AIDS-infected person receives life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs. But the fortunate few are overwhelmingly male. Education, health care, legal rights, jobs are less likely to flow to women, putting them at a disadvantage at preventing AIDS or finding care after infection


Public health is not a local or state or national concern -- it is global. We have to get used to the idea that the health of people in Zimbabwe affects the health of many regions in the world. We have to fund the health of the world because it does impact all of us all. The good news is it doesn't cost that much. If all rich countries put in $10 per person per year, we could treat everyone with HIV. It seems that is a pretty good investment, especially compared to what a war costs

Treatment for HIV infection causes serious side effects and eventually fails many patients. Yet Western nations seem to have so much faith in HIV treatment they forget that prevention is the key to stopping AIDS. Sometime ago the CIA came out with a report that HIV is the greatest international security threat. By 2020, 65 million more people will die. So it is something we should be alarmed about. We need to be inspired to do something about this worldwide epidemic. There is no dodging the issue. AIDS is not going away. More access to drugs, doctors and hospital care -- as well as a change in social attitudes -- will be needed to stop or reverse this deadly scourge