Three million people died worldwide from AIDS in 2005, roughly equaling the population of Chicago. It is the fourth-leading cause of death worldwide, and since the first case was reported in 1981, AIDS has killed 25 million people.
World AIDS Day, which occurred Dec. 1, is meant to remind the world of the plights associated with AIDS and to reiterate the urgency of the epidemic, as there are currently 40 million people infected with the virus.
One million Americans have HIV or AIDS and 40,000 are newly infected with HIV each year. So far it has killed 500,000 Americans. Due to widely available treatments, AIDS related deaths have decreased dramatically in our country, but more than 95 percent of all people with HIV/AIDS live in the developing world, and many have little or no access to treatment. This is why events such as World AIDS Day matter so much—they remind us that HIV/AIDS scourges the developing world.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said to the General Assembly in May 2006 that AIDS/HIV ""has spread further, faster and with more catastrophic long-term effects than any other disease. Its impact has become a devastating obstacle to the progress of humankind.""
Last year, India eclipsed South Africa as home to the world's highest number of people infected with HIV/AIDS, proving that the disease is not solely an epidemic for Africa and its many troubled regions. However, the epidemic still remains at its worst in sub-Saharan Africa, where per capita rates continue to increase.
Ignorance, poverty and negligent political leadership have not only failed to contain the disease, but have hastened its spread within sub-Saharan Africa, creating a place where two-thirds of the world's HIV population resides.
U.N. population researchers say AIDS could claim 31 million lives in India and 18 million in China by 2025. The death toll could even reach 100 million in Africa. Mark Stirling, the regional director of Eastern and Southern Africa for UNAIDS told the Associated Press: ""It's the worst and deadliest epidemic that humankind has ever experienced. We will be grappling with AIDS for the next 10, 20, 30, 50 years.""
The UNAIDS agency needs between $18 - $22 billion each year to run effectively, yet it currently only receives approximately $10 billion per year. As a result, just one in five HIV patients receives the necessary drugs, according to the UNAIDS report.
""On current trends, AIDS will kill tens of millions of people over the next 20 years. But this need not happen,"" Peter Piot, head of the UNAIDS agency said on the organization's website. ""We know prevention works. We know that HIV treatment and care work.""
""Over the last 25 years, the one real weakness was the search for the magic bullet,"" Stirling said. ""There is no quick and simple fix.""
The battle with AIDS is an ongoing war that is far from over. And yet, for the atrocities it has bestowed upon the world, the AIDS epidemic has still not received the attention it deserves.
""We need to commit to a strategic approach that recognizes AIDS both as a long-term priority as well as an emergency that requires an immediate response,"" Piot said.
Plagues and diseases have riddled the world throughout its history, often times killing millions, but they often occurred in a world with little medical knowledge or means to prevent or cure a disease.
Yet, today we live in a world where medical breakthroughs are the norm, a world in which thousands of medical students and pharmaceutical employees spend their time researching and developing cures for the world's deadliest diseases. While no cures have been found, medications have been developed that drastically prolong the life of a patient diagnosed with AIDS.
Nevertheless, in Africa and other uneducated or medically inept places, many people are untrained in these preventive measures and many do not receive the aid they need. Just as we no longer operate with primitive medical knowledge from the Dark Ages, people should no longer suffer from a plague reminiscent of something from that era. We have the knowledge and power to slow and one day potentially stop the AIDS epidemic, yet so much more money and time need to be invested before that day comes.
