World AIDS Day 2008
Today is World AIDS Day. It is sad, but we need to remember. We need to take action to stop the worldwide epidemic that is HIV and AIDS.
It is estimated that 33 million people worldwide are living with HIV. In the United States, an estimated one million Americans are living with HIV. Five million people worldwide die from AIDS every year.
In response to those terrible facts, both the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
http://www.nida.nih.gov/ and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of HIV/AIDS Policy’s AIDS.gov have come together to share HIV/AIDS information with the blogging community for World AIDS Day 2008.
International nonprofit organizations are also working tirelessly to help people understand that HIV/AIDS is now a worldwide epidemic among heterosexual people. In fact, in villages in some parts of the world all the adults, male and female, of child-bearing age are dead, leaving children either to be raised by elderly grandparents or simply orphaned, trying to make a living for themselves.
To learn more, watch this interesting video (no distressing scenes are shown): AIDS Today and What We Can Do About It
Please take a few moments to write your congressman or congresswoman and your U.S. senators, asking them to take action against AIDS in the U.S. and abroad.
The United States is said to be the wealthiest country in the world, yet we make the smallest contribution per person of any developed country. That is, while the amounts we donate may seem large, they are tiny as a percentage of what we have.
Other countries make far larger contributions to world heath, as a percentage of their national income. America can do better, and we must do better. Because it is such a dangerous epidemic, AIDS is where we should start.
