The AIDS Fight Continues

"... [AIDS] was a terrifying epidemic for the gay community in the 1980s. While it doesn't command the headlines it once did, fear and uncertainty remain.

"Ceremonies commemorating the 30th anniversary, held [June 5] at the Desert AIDS Project (DAP) in Palm Springs, were appropriate and moving. CEO David Brinkman said positive HIV tests are 300 percent higher here than the national average.

"'That shows there's an alarming spread in this region of California,'" he said of [HIV].

"It is no longer a young man's disease. [DAP's] youngest client is 12. Its oldest is 80. It is no longer considered 'the gay disease.' In Africa, 12 million children are orphaned because of AIDS.

"There was excitement recently about Timothy Ray Brown, a carrier of HIV with leukemia who was reportedly cured through a blood stem-cell transplant. That gives us hope, but it was a radical and rare procedure. Truth is, a cure for AIDS remains a distant dream.

"Even with medical advances, two AIDS patients die each month in the Coachella Valley. Support of [DAP] is still important.

"Education and prevention are the best way to stop the spread of AIDS.

"As Brinkman put it, 'The thing to know is that this horrific virus is entirely preventable for most people with a 25-cent condom.'"

Back to other news for June 2011