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.

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.

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.