Its now been 24 years since the first people on the planet started to fall with a mysterious illness that would soon be known to the world as the Virus HIV – which can potentially lead to AIDS and potentially Kill. 24 years ago they had no idea why people in San Francisco were dropping down with a mysterious illness that seemed to affect the natural immune system. 24 years later we know all about the Virus, we have medications that can stop the virus from spreading, we are no longer seeing commercials funded by the government of huge chucks of ice falling off into the Ocean. We no longer see legends such as the great Freddy Mercury or Kenny Everett secretly getting ill and then announcing just weeks before their death that they are infected with the Gay Virus. We thankfully now know its not just a Gay Virus, infact recent research has shown that in the past year more new infections were by heterosexual couples.
So today is the first day of the Advent Calaner and also the day we think about those that are living with HIV or AIDS. Those that are suffering under the effects of the virus. Sure, we are lucky. We live in the modern world within one of the richest 8 countries on the entire planet. A privilege a child like me of the 70’s can only but take for granted. Sure we remember the Falklands War and the Gulf Conflict but that was war on foreign soil. Did it affect our schools? Did it stop me from talking my summer holiday and relaxing in the sun? Did I stop to think about the people in the lands being bombed or the suffering a mother could face at loosing her children as missiles from a submarine safely hidden under the oceans surface could fire aimlessly just because her government and our government didn’t quite see eye to eye. My grand mother is 85 this year and has had to live through a national conscription! She was forced into working at a factory making bullets for the 2nd World War.
I rarely think of those days I rarely think of how hard it must have been to love off rations. Its scary enough when the water or electricity is off for a couple of days let alone to be at War for years on end. But there is a new War we are all need to be aware of now. That is the fight of keeping the world HIV Negative. I meet so many young people on line these days who openly say that they practice Safe Sex Occasionally. Having not even been alive in the 80’s when we were all given the “AIDS – don’t die of ignorance Leaflet (The UK Government published a document that was sent to every house in the United Kigdom). It seems the young men of today see HIV as being as technicality. Something that is not really a problem and if one day they do discover that they are positive, cest la vie. Its no big deal, there are pills that can deal with it? It seems now, more than ever there is a new wave of infections. More and more of my friends have been diagnosed in the past year. As young as 22 a moment of passion has turned their world upside down forever. 24 years after the first infections were discovered there is still a real stigma around the virus. Those who are infected say its more dealing with it in their own head as much as the virus itself. Have some Respect, Respect yourself – Demand Safe Sex. Don’t presume he or she is Negative. I work for one of the big drug companies that make HIV medication. Their latest figures show that in the UK 1 in 150 people is now HIV Positive. A figure that is rising all of the time. Back in the 80’s there used to be a poem that said it all;
“Don’t be Daft
Don’t be Silly
Where a condom
On your Willy”
--- Happy World Aids Day – Be Safe – Be Well.
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