THE ISSUE: New legislation reduces federal aid
WHAT WE THINK: Cuts show little support for education
Starting last Tuesday, Boston College celebrated a week of AIDS awareness with a series of events highlighted by a panel discussion, a benefit concert, and a screening of the movie Three Needles. Most visibly, the week included a number of poignant signs and demonstrations of the sheer size and scope of the AIDS epidemic. Standing in front of a stand of poinsettias, one sign read, "If BC were the world, these 79 flowers represent the 79 people who would be infected with HIV."
Though the events were considered a success, the need for these demonstrations of the growing epidemic is troubling. AIDS Awareness Week belies a deeper problem: a general lack of awareness. It seems that AIDS is flying under the radar, that we need to be reminded of it. Over 33 million people are infected with HIV, according to the 2007 AIDS Epidemic Update. AIDS is here now, and it is spreading. So why is no one talking about it?
Even amid the striking statistics and ominous predictions of disease control specialists, AIDS has a hard time grabbing headlines. The spread of HIV has been most dramatic in Africa in poor regions remote from major media attention, while interest in the topic has been supplanted by the more media-friendly stories on terrorism and global warming.
The general lack of attention has allowed AIDS to continue to be a silent killer. Yet the 2.9 million people that UNAIDS estimates died in 2003 dwarfs the 2,998 killed in the attacks of Sept. 11, or the approximately 4,000 American deaths in Iraq - two events that dominate public discourse.
The deafening silence on the issue of AIDS does not excuse our inattention. As the leaders of the future, it is our responsibility to put AIDS on the agenda. If we don't get control of this issue, it will get control of us. Ignoring the extent of the AIDS epidemic does not exempt us from its ramifications. According to statistics from a paper by two World Health Organization scientists, the AIDS death rate - currently around 3 million per year - could skyrocket to 120 million per year by 2030, making it the third-leading cause of death.
Numbers like that should be enough to make AIDS Awareness Week a moot point. Everyone should sit up and take notice. Unlike terrorism and global warming, these are not problems based on shadowy threats or slowly rising seas; this is a real epidemic occurring now. It has an extremely serious body count as it is, and that number seems likely only to rise.
So make this issue part of the agenda. Join a campus AIDS activist group, write to your congressman, or tell a friend. The dead won't make HIV a part of the national and global agenda. It is up to us, the living, to do that.
2008 Woodie Awards
