World AIDS Day

President Barack Obama on Friday issued the following Presidential Proclamation in advance of World AIDS Day on Monday, an annual observance to raise awareness and commemorate those who have lost their lives to one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.

On the morning of my 30th birthday, I checked my then-partner, Shane Sawick, into the hospital. He would not come out. Shane died just two weeks later, suffering from Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML); one disease, among many, battled in his long war against AIDS. Once in the hospital, the illness quickly progressed, and in just a matter of days, he could no longer speak, blink, nor respond in any way. Through it all, though, his mind still raced, and processed, and thought…

Each year on World AIDS Day, we come together as a global community to fight a devastating pandemic. We remember the friends and loved ones we have lost, stand with the estimated 35 million people living with HIV/AIDS, and renew our commitment to preventing the spread of this virus at home and abroad…

President Barack Obama on Friday issued this Presidential Proclamation in advance of World AIDS Day, an annual observance to raise awareness and commemorate those who have lost their lives to one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.

Thirty-one years ago, on June 5, in 1981, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta published a report of five cases of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) among previously healthy young men in Los Angeles. All of the men were described as “homosexuals” — two had died. This was the first official mention of a disease that had no name, no known means of transmission, no treatment and no cure.

Today, people still die from AIDS. While drug advancements have substantially decreased that number, it has also created the false-belief that contracting the disease is essentially meaningless. To some, taking one pill a day is an easy trade-off to having to wear condoms. Most disturbing, however, is the sheer number to whom AIDS just doesn’t matter, having relegated it to a page in history…

The Obama administration unveiled on Thursday a “blueprint” for confronting the global AIDS epidemic that includes as one of its goals targeting populations that are most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS — including men who have sex with men.

A new World AIDS Day report by the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) shows that a more than 50 percent reduction in the rate of new HIV infections has been achieved across 25 low- and middle-income countries –– more than half in Africa, the region most affected by HIV.

This time of the year is probably the best time (at least in our hemisphere) for World AIDS Day. Our twenty four hour days are filled with more darkness than light in December than any other month of the year. In some places it can be very dark and dreary, indeed. It’s an appropriate time of the year to remember the darkness of HIV.

President Barack Obama on Thursday issued the following Presidential Proclamation, commemorating World AIDS Day 2011: On World AIDS Day, 30 years after the first cases of HIV/AIDS were reported, we stand with the individuals and communities affected by HIV and recommit to progress toward an AIDS free generation. A red ribbon hangs from the North […]