World Aids Day 2013: we’re making strides but more can be done

December 1, 2013 · found by

Today marks the 25th World Aids Day, a moment at the start of the holiday season to reflect and remember. While the day is often marked with vigils and memorials, awareness has always been important and this year’s theme is ‘Getting to zero’ as in zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero deaths.

Deaths are down but the stigma of the disease is still an issue. Speaking to the Independent on Sunday news paper UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibé said, “We are winning against this epidemic, we are seeing a decline in new infections, an increase in people treated… we have broken the conspiracy of silence.” 35 million people in the world are infected and the disease has claimed over 40 million, mostly in Africa.

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Awareness in western countries means lower rates of infection. Reports show that young gays are well aware of hiv/aids and using protection but few know their status, another point UNAIDS wants to make today, get tested. What the young gay men today don’t know is what life was like during the worst of the pandemic, when San Francisco and other cities with large gay neighborhoods. I don’t know what it was like either; I have thankfully not lost a single friend to the disease, though a few are positive. In those early days the disease ravaged our community. Once healthy young men were wasting away, in the words of one journalist, “San Francisco had become a city of cadavers.” Barely a decade after liberation, gay life was at its’ peak only to be nearly destroyed by Aids. The community fought back and awareness has been high ever since, but the disease did not go away, it spread further.

US President Barack Obama issued a proclamation to mark the day. While noting the fight reaches outside their borders he also stated that his “administration remains committed to reducing the stigma and disparities that fuel this epidemic” echoing the theme.

Apple marked the day by turning their Store logos red, which staff inside wearing plain red shirts and all the iPad covers switched over to the Product Red covers (at least at London’s Covent Garden store). (Apple’s CEO Tim Cook is new to Twitter and that’s his first photo tweet). A walk through the busy shopping streets of London today, one is overwhelmed by the Christmas decorations and displays in shop windows. The subtle change to Apple Stores was one of the few reminders that today is World Aids Day. Aids ribbons were spotted, but only on a few pedestrians.