HIV and AIDS

I was having coffee with my friend in a cafe recently when Hans Rosling walked in. Once you see this man give a lecture, you will never forget him- he takes data and he presents it, or rather brings it to life, like noone else can. Makes you wish all your professors were like this. I recently attended a stunning lecture where he talked about some of the common myths about the developing world and why we must not think of it as ‘us’ and ‘them’ any longer, how all countries are on a trajectory to health with some so-called developing countries moving twice as fast as their western counterparts.

For a child who faces discrimination due to his or her association with HIV and AIDS, the opportunity to play amongst peers is priceless.

For a child grieving the loss of a parent or sibling, the opportunity to escape from it all (even for an afternoon), can be therapeutic and healing.

It’s an interesting thing, because when you spend time out in the field, you never know when you will run across moments-simple and meaningful moments.

That’s what I love about working in the field.

One moment you can feel completely engulfed by the misery of the suffering and the stigma resulting from the AIDS pandemic and yet in the next breath …

Matchmaking services are offered for people living with HIV in India. It makes sense. People who live with the virus support each other.

Currently many people take 3 taxis and over 2 hours each way to attend these HIV and AIDS support sessions, despite the fact that there is a group meeting in their own neighborhood.

They go the same distance to receive medical care at a hospital far from where they live.

Why take such measures? For the simple reason of anonymity.

It’s no mystery that the stigma against HIV and AIDS is the driving force behind many obstacles to preventing and treating the disease.

Fear of stigma leads to unwillingness to get tested, discrimination leads to vulnerabilities, such as poverty, that lead to higher risk of infection. Now add…

Higher than West Africa, on par with Uganda and Kenya-HIV and AIDS on the rise in Washington D.C. As the prevalence increases-up 22% since 2006, we should be careful to treat the local epidemic where transmission is actually taking place rather than turn it into an ‘everyone’s at risk’ problem….

Pastor Joel is living with HIV. He has experienced first hand the stigma that follows the disease in Haiti.

The United Nations AIDS division has released a report on the global AIDS epidemic for the year 2008. Every two years UNAIDS publishes a new “Report on the global AIDS epidemic”. In terms of data, this source can give you most of the HIV and AIDS statistics that are being measured including the estimated number of people living with HIV, adult prevalence and AIDS deaths by country and year since 1990. It is possible to see where strides have been made in the last 20 years, and also how the epidemic is changing.

At a meeting of World Concern HIV/AIDS field staff, the question came up of how many of us knew our HIV status (hence this post being about AIDS Awareness). A few hands went up, but not every hand. Leading to the next question, “How can we refer people to voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) centers if we haven’t gone ourselves?”

AIDS statistics play an important part in understanding what is going on with HIV and AIDS. Read…

HIV prevention needs of people who are HIV positive have been largely ignored. What is being done?