Today is World Aids Day, 1st December 2009, this post is a little late in the day, but better than never.
In the UK there are apparently 80, 000 people living with HIV/Aids virus, and 7,000 plus cases diagnosed last year being 2008.
In the USA there are estimates of 570,000 to 1,000,000 plus living with HIV/Aids.
In Australia there are around 30,000 living with HIV/Aids. Sadly 88 kids under the age of 12 contracted the virus in 2008.
An estimated 2.7 million were infected world wide in 2008.
And these are our so called first world countries. Meant to be well informed and kept up to date on everything to do with HIV/Aids.
In developing nations or what others call third world countries, infection rates are deplorable for many different reasons.
The most important thing is this. No matter if the people who contract the HIV/Aids virus are gay, straight, educated, uneducated, black, white, yellow and so forth. They are sadly living with a terrible disease.
And to all the homophobes, who say that these people deserve to be inflicted with this disease, these very people are usually the uneducated Neanderthals, who are really closet homosexuals (no offence intended to gay people) interfering with animals and just too bloody scared to come out and admit who they really are. They need to be injected with the virus and live in the shoes of a HIV/Aids sufferer.
The first time I saw the suffering of people with this virus, when in the latter stages was totally mind numbing, I couldn’t even think how the person had contracted the virus, be it through drug use, sex, blood transfusion and so forth.
But when I saw such young kids that had been infected before being born, while in the mother’s womb was such a heartbreaking thing to hear and see. Some have lived many years and pretty healthily through the use of drugs. But others were gravely ill and this was such a harrowing ordeal to witness.
To see innocent kids suffering was terrible, and of course there was anger at the parents. How they could infect a child or unborn baby by living a certain lifestyle, I thought was one of the most despicable things that could be done on this earth.
Now of course I am more aware and knowledgeable and sympathetic. I still detest drug users, hate them with a passion. The sad fact is that these people are usually so far gone that sticking a dirty needle in their arm is the wrong thing to do and having unsafe sex is also a danger.
How they got to this place in the life, no matter the sob story, I always believe, “No matter how bad your life had been to the point where drugs entered your life, you make each and every decision for yourself.”
We all make a choice in life, on which road we take at a crossroad, no person ever makes you take a drug, drink an alcoholic drink; this is your choice I personally believe. And when drug users come out with their stories of the past, I don’t have a sympathetic ear for them.
But back to World Aids Day, in any country there are many different organisations that run shelters and homes for sufferers of HIV/Aids. You really need to do yourself a favour and head down to one of these places and see sufferers of the virus. Some sufferers you can’t even pick or think would have the disease and others are just bones covered in a layer of skin.
Actually visiting an Aids hospice here in Thailand, was one of the most eye opening and educational things I could have done. It dismissed many myths of what I had about HIV/Aids.
And even better, you can make a donation to any charity or organisation in your country or abroad. The day to day running of places are expensive and many governments do not fund these places enough or at all.
Also you could volunteer your time at such a place, and after you will not be the same, you will look at many things in a different way and new light.
HIV/Aids has been pushed back, out of many peoples’ minds, and rates of HIV/Aids infection have been increasing in some countries of late, probably through lack of education and efforts of governments to make people aware of the virus.
Anyway, that’s my take on World Aids Day, support it, and make your kids aware, friends and others that may have become complacent over the years.
Brunty
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