HIV/AIDS Response

HIV/AIDS is an issue that is near and dear to my own heart. I was fortunate enough to be able to serve around Kenya, and Zimbabwe, Africa last year, and I saw what AIDS does to a body. It is simply devastating. The number of suffering people grows daily. Like many other diseases, it can be secually transmitted very easily. Even scarier, it can go unnoticed in your system for an unknown amount of time. A person could be living a promiscuously and unknowingly be infecting others. Once an HIV infection is contracted, there is no cure, it simply progresses, until eventually it turns into AIDS. After prolonged sickness, most die due to secondary infections, as their immune system shuts down. One of the most heartbreaking things I saw in Africa was the social divide HIV/AIDS caused. Those that got sick were often thrown out of communities, or were so convinced of their fate, removed themselves. I believe that, in America, the stigmas against gay individuals stems largely from the fear of HIV/AIDS.  However, we are making advancements. Using a new drug called “PReP”, individuals can continue to have sex with decreased risk of contracting an infection. Using other retroviral drugs, HIV+ individuals can live a long and nearly normal life, that was the purpose of my work in Africa.

HIV/AIDS is not a problem that is going to disappear overnight, but we are getting better and better at beating it.