world aids day 2008

Jason Lee/Reuters

Last month in Berlin, doctors reported that they had cured a man with AIDS by giving him transplanted blood stem cells from a person resistant to the virus. That alone is an enormous Whoo-hoo!, but, can you imagine the cost of such treatment? That left me thinking of how unobtainable it will be for thousands of common people who suffer from AIDS.

This year is the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, and things have definitely changed during the past twenty years, but there is still a lot to be done, especially educating people about this disease. I read recently that AIDS is now thought of as a chronic disease like Diabetes, and that could the reason why a lot of young men have stopped considering it a risk. And maybe that is why a lot of seropositive men do not consider protecting themselves and others by having safe sex.

It all boils down to education, and early education and prevention is the key. We owe it to ourselves to be more informed about AIDS and also about stem cells. While these may not be the solution to the problem, they hold the code to curing many illnesses. I am hopeful that this upcoming administration will fund stem cell research and sex education in schools. Religious beliefs can simply not be the reason to let people suffer and eventually die, and I am also hopeful that people will realize this soon.

In this State, people rightfully and compassionately voted to let the chicken be cage-free and to prohibit parents of underage girls who face the difficult option of having an abortion be informed of the procedure. And the same universe of voters decided to strip a civil right of the gay citizens away by saying yes to Proposition 8. One word: ignorance.

My dad used to say that ignorance is just the lack of education, of knowledge, and that ignorance becomes harmful when a person willingly does not want to learn about something. That is what I see happening more and more when someone speaks shielded by a religious belief without questioning him or herself if this belief is unfounded or not.

To learn more about safer sex guidelines, please click here. And remember, AIDS is not gone. Thank you.