Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - December 1, 2006
What's the connection? It's AIDS, the worldwide plague that now has its very own day, today, Dec. 1. The swing of activities around the globe should make the point: The deadly infection is best fought in different ways in different places.
In San Francisco, awareness is keyed high. Established programs, medical care and fund-raising such the paper-crane sales are well along. In this country, AIDS infection rates have flat-lined. If that sounds comforting, consider that the HIV virus that causes final-stage AIDS still infects 40,000 per year, mostly among drug-users, women and blacks.
The Beijing cabbies may not know it, but they represent a leading edge in AIDS awareness in the world's most populated nation. Chinese leaders are waking to the peril with wildfire potential. In China, the risk of AIDS from drug needles and unprotected sex is compounded by the practice of blood selling. Taxi drivers are doing their part to combat the crisis by passing out cards that explain the risks of AIDS infection -- and dispel the many myths.
In Africa, home to some 60 percent of the world's 40 million AIDS cases, awareness, prevention and treatment remain rudimentary. That's why a Kaiser Foundation-backed plan for radio broadcasts makes sense. A steady drumbeat of information via the airwaves can reach both urban and rural populations where health systems can't.
These ideas are a start on a long journey. By next year, World AIDS Day must mark even more imagination and progress, if the disease is ever to be stopped.
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