World AIDS Day 2018: yesterday and today



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SANTA FE – From helpless darkness to hopeful light, the annual events of World AIDS Day held on December 1 around the world for 30 years are transforming before our eyes, from dark memories to the celebration of positive opportunities for people living with HIV / AIDS in 2018. The events that began in the 1980s as commemorations of those tens of thousands of people who had so quickly lost their lives in the terrible battle against HIV / AIDS. HIV / AIDS has now become a permanent honorary memorial and a celebration full of hope for those tens of thousands of people living with HIV / AIDS today and living with HIV / AIDS. This seemingly miraculous transition takes us all down a much less traveled path, a road that could one day replace the stigma so intimately linked to HIV / AIDS. …

World AIDS Day is December 1 of every year since its inception in 1988 to give all people affected by HIV / AIDS – who in 2018, probably from now on each and every one of us – the opportunity to to unite as an enlightened force to continue moving forward in the global fight against HIV / AIDS, to honor the lives lost in this struggle and to celebrate the advances that bring such great hope for this time and our common future.

Since the identification of the virus in 1984, more than 35 million people have lost their lives to AIDS, one of the most destructive pandemics in the history of the world. In addition, about 35.7 million people in the world still live with the HIV virus. For most of the 1980s, a positive diagnosis of HIV was considered a near-death sentence, with no life-saving treatment options. While the desperation of these devastating circumstances created a debilitating fear in the city-by-city communities affected in America and around the world, activist groups emerged from this disaster to draw attention to the growing problem of HIV / AIDS, which In barrel the cost. As more and more dynamic young people were diagnosed positively, freedom became another word for "nothing was to be lost". A group called Act Up, with sister groups in most major cities of America, was founded by Larry Kramer in New York. attract attention in all possible ways to the HIV / AIDS pandemic. Act Up has targeted its activism in all directions: 1) politicians to provide research funds, 2) celebrities to support the causes of the pandemic and fundraising during the pandemic, and 3) individuals for that they assume the responsibility of informing everyone about the spread of the disease and ways to stop the spread of the disease.

The fully awakened advocacy and activism of groups such as Act Up caused a loud and disruptive noise about what appeared to be an extremely long time – until: 1) politicians provide funds for research, 2) celebrities have created the necessary funds to support the lives of those affected and educate those who can protect themselves, 3) pharmaceutical companies have created research and have followed with products to extend, then sustain the lives of those infected, and most importantly 4) people from all over the world have found their own voice by proposing new ways to support what has become a global movement against HIV / AIDS, all of these parts together in a single force for a fight that lasts for more than 30 years the table.

People in treatment are now living longer and living with HIV / AIDS! And more: the CDC announced that "people living with HIV (antiretroviral therapy) with an undetectable viral load in their blood work have a negligible risk of sexual transmission of HIV."

All of this helps to explain why, again, in 2018, we are meeting on December 1 to honor and remember the "what has been" with the AIDS pandemic for nearly 30 years, and to celebrate the "what's" of individuals who live and thrive with HIV / AIDS treatments today.

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