This World AIDS Day, I called in sick to the office. I don’t have AIDS, I just happen to be under the weather.
While I can’t do much about the syndrome itself, seeing as how I am not a research scientist, I can at least raise awareness and encourage prevention education.
Here’s how I do that:
Please read this article on World Aids Day 2009 from NPR’s news blog, The Two-Way. The article contains a brilliant summation of the current world AIDS situation from UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe.
If you’re too lazy to read the article, I’ll reprint the summation here, with some parts in bold (courtesy of me, because I like them):
On this World AIDS Day we are filled with both hope and concern.
Hope because significant progress has been made towards universal access. New HIV infections have dropped. Fewer children are born with HIV. And more than 4 million people are on treatment.
Concern because 28 years into the epidemic the virus continues to make inroads into new populations; stigma and discrimination continue to undermine efforts to turn back the epidemic. The violation of human rights of people living with HIV, women and girls, men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers must end.
(Keep reading…)