World AIDS Day

"To people living with, living with, living with, not dying from disease."
-"La Vie Boheme", Rent the Musical

Today, December 1st, is World AIDS Day, as declared by the UN 19 years ago. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS. Here are the latest estimated statistics for 2006 from UNAIDS:

Number of people living with AIDS: 39.5 million (56% men, 44% women)

Number of children (under 15) living with AIDS: 2.3 million

AIDS deaths in 2006: 2.9 million

Total AIDS-related deaths, worldwide: Over 25 million

Number of reported AIDS cases in the US (as of 2003): 405,926

These maps provide a breakdown of the statistics by country.

A timeline of AIDS for you history buffs.

If you're from Chicago, please either go to a Garret Popcorn Shop or shop online. For today and today only, they're donating 10% of all store and online profits to Howard Brown Health Center, the Midwest's premier LGBT health care organization. Yes, I know the lines are always super long, but it's worth it, don't you think?

And this goes for everyone: Please take some time today and think about the AIDS/HIV epidemic. It may not touch your lives on a daily basis, and some of you may even be lucky enough to not know anyone currently battling this disease. But, it's an epidemic that I think we've become complacent to due to current and emerging drug therapies. Regardless, just in the US, 25% of those with AIDS don't know they have it. If you take the statistics from above, that's over 100,000 people in the US who are infected and have no idea, and who could be unknowingly infecting others.

Also, for being the world's only superpower, we sure do suck when it comes to our response to this epidemic. Take some time today and learn something new about AIDS/HIV and how you can help. There are plenty of organizations to choose from, all doing great things in AIDS/HIV research and support, many of them linked in this blog. At the very least, fill out this very easy form asking your congress representatives to support the Ryan White CARE Act, which is in serious peril of being underfunded or not reauthorized at all.

Regardless of religion, political standing or race, I think we all can agree that the AIDS epidemic is something that needs to be addressed, and it needs to be addressed now.