Today is World AIDS Day. While the situation for people who are infected with HIV has changed a lot since World AIDS Day was first announced, in some ways things seem to have changed hardly at all. When I work with institutions that house children with HIV to transition to family-based care, the biggest obstacle that we run into is not the children’s health issues or medical needs, it is still stigma and discrimination.
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World AIDS Day
When the first World AIDS Day took place, in 1988, having HIV meant getting AIDS and dying of it, quite rapidly. It was essential to raise awareness, both to try to prevent the spread of the disease and to push the medical community into coming up with effective treatments. Today, with the rapid improvement of medication to control the HIV that leads to AIDS, and with the number of AIDS deaths on the decline in many parts of the world it may seem to some people that it is no longer very necessary to shine such a light on the issue. People who have access to Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) can live normal lives, aside from taking medication and medical check ups, of normal length. But that is not all there is to it.
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