Approximately 16,000 people become infected with HIV every day. By the year 2,000 there will be more than 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. More than 40% of AIDS cases worldwide are women.
In the US, one in four people who become infected with HIV is under the age of 20. The protease cocktail costs $16,000 per year one person. ADAP (US AIDS Drug Assistance Program) is bankrupt in over half of the 50 states, which means that they cannot provide access to the protease cocktail. More than half of HIV+ people undergoing triple-combination therapy have developed resistance, rendering the drugs useless. One person is infected with HIV in the US every 13 minutes. While 95% of Americans believe that public schools should provide HIV prevention education, frank discussion of sexuality and condoms in the classroom is virtually taboo.
These are some of the bald statistics -- but what of the lives of people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS? Newspaper and magazine articles give us some information, but cannot give voice to the many different experiences of living with HIV. Often the articles give regional specificity, without consideration of the global issues.
"A Day in the Life..." focuses attention on the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS and their caregivers, attempting thereby to personalize the global impact of this virus. It offers journal entries -- personal stories of everyday life, memories, poems, and anecdotes -- from people with HIV/AIDS, physicians, artists, AIDS service workers, caregivers, family members, and people who have lost a loved one, giving context and a new understanding to the AIDS pandemic.
You can read from a random sample of entries or you can search by keyword, by country or by name. We hope that you will find time to submit your own entry, something that relates specifically to your personal experience and which may be special to your profession, your age, your geographical location, or your family. Please also email your friends to encourage them to visit this site.
A Day in the Life was created by Visual AIDS for the 10th Day With(out) Art: An International Day of Action and Mourning in Response to the AIDS Crisis, held on World AIDS day, December 1, 1998.
Visual AIDS: 526 w26th st no 510 new york new york 10001 tel: 212 627 9855 fax: 212.6279815 email visaids@earthlink.net |