Day of Clarity

Frontdesk by David Waggoner

December 1 is officially World AIDS Day. Around the world, galleries shroud art, lights go out in office parks, presidents proclaim new funding for HIV research and care, and millions of dogs and cats wear red AIDS ribbons on their collars to commemorate their masters who have died from the deadly disease. Or so it used to be. Thankfully, HIV is no longer a certain death sentence as it was twenty years ago. Even ten years ago for many whose weakened immune systems couldn’t take advantage of the relatively new class of antiretrovirals named protease inhibitors, having HIV infection was scary and alarm bells would go off. Now, it’s a matter of course for millions who are testing earlier, getting better medical care, enjoying better and longer-lasting drug regimens.

New drugs—including integrase inhibitors, maturation inhibitors, even easier-to-administer fusion inhibitors—are getting closer to approval by the FDA. Antiretroviral therapies might soon greatly impact the millions of those living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, China, and South America. Universal access by 2010 is now a real possibility. With the heartening statistics of one in four South Africans now having access to some form of antiretroviral care, the projections for the world’s worst plague are not as dire.
But for every new victory since the last World AIDS Day there have been setbacks and roadblocks as well.

Take for example the fact that one in three Americans still don’t know they are infected; that four out of every five people worldwide have not been tested; that the United States withholds money from international AIDS groups who don’t make abstinence the core message of their prevention programs. At least some countries are refusing to accept these strings-attached greenbacks. Brazil recently refused millions in U.S. aid because of the condom restrictions and from the strength of having their own flourishing HIV pharmaceutical industry. With this new positive paradigm, a real drop is being witnessed in new infections in South America. And yet, right here in America, HIV infections are increasing in minority communities at an unprecedented rate. So it’s a cloudy forecast at best.

This month’s exclusive cover story with actress and philanthropist extraordinaire, Phylicia Rashad, confirms these statistics. B. Andrew Plant finds the woman who played one of America’s favorite working moms on TV, Clair Huxtable, speaking out about the unsettling number of orphanages springing up across the African continent. As Ms. Rashad instructs, AIDS is both an international catastrophe and a localized problem. This year, in the last twelve months, another five million people worldwide have become infected and forty thousand in this country alone. Like her television namesake, she brings clarity to how we can balance the pandemic near and far: “I would suggest that, in whichever community we are living, we seek to find organizations that are already providing services in counseling, nutrition, childcare...whatever, and add what we can to it.”

Rashad’s optimism spills over in her own work to sustain projects that have lasting results. One of her favorite charities is The PRASAD Project, whose many programs provide everything from free dental care to children in upstate New York to corrective eye surgery for those in Mexico. On an international scale, PRASAD’s no-nonsense approach to AIDS healthcare can be witnessed in their work in India, where truck drivers and migrant workers in the Tansa Valley have been highlighted for prevention outreach. This juggling of both the international and the local makes organizations like PRASAD, and celebrities like Phylicia Rashad, a good example of why we can celebrate World AIDS Day. The more folks know that they can make a difference, the less HIV there will be in the world.

December 2006