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 HIV/AIDS:
The Fight Continues -
In Spite of the Deafening Silence
by: Sheryl Lee Ralph and
Pennsylvania Senator Vincent Hughes
On HIV/AIDS, the silence is deafening.
On a disease that kills millions on
every continent in the world, the quiet
hush breaks our eardrums, and works to
end our resolve.
We have been vocal advocates and policy
drivers on the issue of HIV/AIDS for
over two decades. Our concern for this
health care epidemic, existed prior to
our meeting one another, and has only
been strengthened since we became a
couple seven years ago.
We have spoken out in almost every forum
conceivable, throughout this nation, and
around the world. From small community
meetings, to large church groups. From
the neighborhood block captain, to wide
eyed high school students, to heads of
state - people of all types have either
wanted to listen to our message, or been
forced to hear our words.
 In some cases, there have been some
positive developments - more communities
are moving toward rapid testing of
HIV/AIDS where you can know your status
in 20 minutes, as opposed to having to
wait a week for the results through the
traditional testing method. More women
are battling to take control of their
lives and their sexual health.
Thankfully,
more
churches and places of worship are
getting the word that a sensible health
ministry is in good keeping with the
basic tenants of their faith.
But in too many cases, there remains a
deafening silence - and consequently the
appropriate public policy remains
longing for a response that is
consistent with the scourge of this
disease.
MASS MEDIA TURNS DEAF EAR ON THE ISSUE
Television and radio production people
have stopped discussing the issue.
Recently, the Fox affiliate in Los
Angeles refused to run a public service
announcement about HIV. We even got a
response from a television show producer
who said that HIV/AIDS is "just not sexy
anymore." We wondered whether HIV/AIDS
is not sexy - or worthy of discussion,
or are the people who are now getting
HIV/AIDS in alarming numbers, black and
brown women and children, "not sexy
anymore?"
If you look at the map of the spread of
HIV/AIDS, it is breaking out in
continents where there is a large number
of poor women and children who have been
marginalized and stigmatized. Most of
these countries, including the USA, have
deficient systems of delivering health
services to this population, and in far
too many cases, the women of these
nations are not viewed as equals to the
men, and not deserving of high quality
health care, for any disease, let alone
HIV/AIDS.
Even in the USA, although President
Obama has begun to make real change on
HIV/AIDS, the message, and the policy,
has not caught up with the spread of the
disease. In fact the age old fear of
addressing any disease that implies that
people are having sex, has led to a
fairly recent study by the Centers for
Disease Control that indicates that one
in four young women of all races and
colors is already infected with some
sort of sexually transmitted infection (STI).
Twenty-five years ago, when Dreamgirls
opened on Broadway, people found it easy
to disown and abandon their sick and
dying children, who were suffering from
this disease that no one could explain.
Twenty-five years later, as a new
version of Dreamgirls begins its
national tour, every time the show is
performed the Dreamgirls cast represents
two of the fastest growing groups of
people in America to become infected
with HIV, young men and young women. But
it appears that they aren’t sexy and
worthy of discussion.
They also don’t seem to be worthy of a
strong public policy response. As cities
and states face difficult funding
decisions due to the national recession,
and tight budgets get slashed to come
into balance, HIV education, prevention,
and treatment programs become
vulnerable. While we fight to protect
their funding, the focus must shift to
Washington. DC for the help necessary to
deal with this epidemic. But the
national response has not met the
medical demand for action. Except for
President Obama's historic march toward
the reinvention of the American health
care system by driving high quality and
preventive health care services to those
who desperately need it, the action in
Washington, does not meet the health
care demand.
GLOBAL AND LOCAL ACTION IS NEEDED
Like the massive rebuilding of Europe
after WW II, clearly there needs to be
an international health care Marshall
Plan to combat the scourge of this
disease. HIV/AIDS awareness, education
and treatment must be everywhere. Small
nations and world powers, talk shows,
newspapers, organizations, national,
state and local governments, grade
school, high school, and college
administrators, churches, mosques,
synagogues, and many others, all must
engage in the fight to stop the spread
of HIV/AIDS. We must encourage everyone
to speak up, get informed, and get
tested, and to create the sustainable
systems in their respective communities
that allows for this fight to be
impactful and ongoing.
We must teach that HIV/AIDS is not only
devastating in its own right, but that
it is also a predictor of other health
care and social problems that may exist
in an infected community. When we fight
and win on HIV, we get a chance to win
on so many other issues that are legacy
predators on communities whose defenses
are weak. By fighting the fight on HIV
on all fronts, we get to fight the fight
for people who are struggling against
poverty, oppression, and lack of
education, just to name a few.
For some it may not be sexy to talk
about HIV/AIDS, but for the overwhelming
majority of us, it is absolutely
necessary to talk about HIV/AIDS, at all
times, and more importantly, to do
something big about HIV/AIDS,
immediately. On a personal level, if you
are going to have sex, PRACTICE IT
SAFELY, GET TESTED, and KNOW YOUR
STATUS. On a family and community level,
GET INFORMED AND TALK TO ONE ANOTHER
from a factual basis. On a policy level,
let's get a strong health care bill
passed that covers the uninsured and
provides high quality preventive health
services to people at a cost they can
afford. This would at least give people
a chance to opt into high quality health
care, thereby putting them in a position
to defend themselves against HIV/AIDS
and many other diseases.
After twenty-five years, we won't stop
our efforts. Let’s make it sexy to not
just talk about HIV, and to not just
fight the spread of HIV, but to WIN THE
VICTORY over a disease that is 100%
preventable. Join us and get engaged as
we fight for the humanity that we know
still exists in all of us. Join us as we
work to end the unnecessary spread of
HIV/AIDS.
Find us at
www.testtogether.org for more
information.
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