Anna March’s Reading Mixtape #10: Remember AIDS?

AIDS isn’t over, but far too many think it is. Not everyone is haunted by remembering the dying, the friends gone gaunt, the lesions appearing, the artists dropping out of sight, the funerals, the lie-filled obituaries, the terrified waits for results of blood tests taken by nurses wearing masks and triple gloves.

From a New York Public Library exhibit on AIDS:

In the United States, more than 600,000 people have died from the disease, and over one million others are living with HIV, many not knowing that they contracted the virus. HIV continues to disproportionately affect minority communities, people who inject drugs, the incarcerated, and transgender people, and new infections are at epidemic rates in poorer urban areas. Men who have sex with men, particularly those in the African American and Latino communities, followed by African American and Latina women, currently have the highest rates of HIV infection in the United States. Worldwide, as many as 30 million people have died of AIDS, and more than 34 million are living with the virus, with over two million new infections annually. Despite scientific advances, most do not have access to treatment. The majority of cases are in sub-Saharan Africa, where one in every 20 people is now living with HIV. For women aged 15 to 44, AIDS is the leading cause of death worldwide. Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) have asserted the need for prevention and treatment on a global scale, and insist that the response to HIV be grounded in human rights and gender equality.

AIDS isn’t just yesterday, it’s now.

Remember, remember.