Yesterday, December First, was World AIDS Day. If you’re an American who marked World AIDS Day this year by actually contracting HIV, you are in a much larger group than previously thought.

Used to be, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimated about 40,000 Americans contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, every year. Now, that number will increase by 50%, to about 60,000 Americans every year. So if your personal commemoration of World AIDS Day yesterday included getting HIV, you are now among 164 people who also contracted HIV yesterday in the United States.

164 Americans every day contract an entirely preventable disease. How did we get here? And is it getting worse?

The higher estimate is the product of a new method of testing blood samples that can identify those who were infected within the previous five months. With a way to distinguish recent infections from long-standing ones, epidemiologists can then estimate how many new infections are appearing nationwide each month or year.

The higher estimate is based on data from 19 states and large cities that have been extrapolated to the nation as a whole.

So do we know whether this is better tracking of an already higher incidence of HIV infection, or is the HIV epidemic getting worse? Well, it could be both, in fact:

"The likelihood is that this bigger number represents a clearer picture of what has been there for the past few years. But we won’t know for sure for a while," said Walt Senterfitt, an epidemiologist who is the chairman of the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), a New York-based activist organization.

There is evidence, however, that at least some of the higher number may reflect an uptick in infections in recent years. Information from 33 states with the most precise form of reporting showed a 13 percent increase in HIV infections in homosexual men from 2001 to 2005.

Which brings me to the address by Charles King, Founder and President of Housing Works, yesterday at the AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park. Among other trenchant observations, Mr King had this to say about AIDS in America:

“I know that New York, San Francisco and L.A. have all at one time or another claimed to be the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. But a recent study underscores what many of us have known for a while now.

“The true epicenter of the epidemic today is Washington, D.C. In our nation’s capitol today, now more than one in every 20 people is living with HIV. And one more damning statistic: One out of every 7 Black men living in Washington, D.C. is infected with HIV.. and of course, the lion’s share of these men are men who are having sex with other men, whether we claim them as members of our community or not.

“The reality is that AIDS is no longer so much a gay disease in the United States as it is a disease of race and poverty. And that brings to light a dirty secret about the organized and politically engaged gay community.

“We are overwhelmingly white and reasonably well – off, and our movement is almost exclusively about rights for ourselves and people like ourselves.

Americans who need help, including residents of Washington DC, are neither overwhelmingly white nor well-off.

And the numbers are staggering. About 12,500 District residents have HIV or AIDS. Of the nearly 3,300 new HIV cases reported between 2001 and 2006, 37 percent were spread through heterosexual sex, 25 percent through homosexual sex. More than 80 percent of those new cases were among African Americans: men, women, teenagers. And perhaps the most worrisome figure of all — because, with enough education, it’s easily preventable — is the number of pediatric cases: 56 children born with either HIV or AIDS in the past five years.

[snip]

When it comes to HIV/AIDS, there are two Washingtons. There’s the Washington of politicians, think tanks and global health organizations, all addressing the illness as an international crisis. For them, AIDS is "over there," in Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America. Then there’s the other Washington, the District of Columbia, that has consistently battled a spreading disease right here in our back yard. What makes it especially tragic and confounding is that more than 20 years ago, the District was one of the first cities in the country to create an AIDS office.

Laura Bush, whose husband’s Administration has withheld funds from organizations that provided community-based prevention solutions and showered funds on organizations that promote ignorance through abstinence-only teaching, blames Americans for becoming complacent:

Today, a red ribbon hangs in front of the White House to mark World AIDS Day. It’s a celebration of the progress we’ve made — and a reminder to all Americans that the AIDS epidemic is far from over.

Reports released this week contain disturbing news about AIDS in our country. As new medicines allow people with HIV to enjoy normal lives, more Americans are becoming complacent, and infection rates among gay and bisexual men are rising.

Americans aren’t becoming complacent, Mrs Bush. A new generation of Americans has been kept in the dark about sex as they have attained sexual maturity. The abstinence-only movement has helped keep them ignorant. Not teaching our young people, and not providing them with the tools and information they need to have safe sex, is what’s fueling this epidemic. Keeping our young people ignorant about sex by teaching them nothing about sex in abstinence-only programs is the problem, not complacency due to successful pharmaceutical treatments.

You may blame it on complacency. I blame it on your husband’s pandering to his rightwing theocratic base.

Contrast the faux outrage over "condoms in schools" of the O’Reilly Contingent with the matter-of-fact approach being taken in Brazil:

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Brazil’s government announced plans to put condom-dispensing machines in public schools to help teenagers reduce the spread of AIDS.

The health and education ministries and the United Nations sponsored a nationwide contest for students to design the dispenser. Three potential models were selected on Friday, the government news agency Agencia Brasil said.

Condom machines are to be installed in 100 public schools in 2008, officials said.

A CONTEST to design the condom dispensing machine! This program isn’t just for the "big kids," either. It’s for young people reaching sexual maturity, regardless of their age and their school grade:

Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao this week said young Brazilians between 13 and 24 were the target of Brazil’s anti-AIDS campaign this year. Nearly 70,000 cases of AIDS were registered among Brazilians under 24, or about 16 percent of the cases reported in the country, according to the anti-AIDS program.

Brazil, of course, takes a common-sense approach to those who’ve slipped through their prevention net as well. AIDS treatment is also an entirely different matter than here in America:

Brazil provides free AIDS drugs to anyone who needs them and has aggressively pushed drug manufacturers to lower prices.

Mrs Bush, get a clue: You’ve got one more World AIDS Day to get it right. Ask your husband to make America the equal of Brazil — at least when it comes to AIDS prevention and treatment at home!

{YouTube of Dr Becky Kuhn, co-founder of Global Lifeworks, matter-of-factly debunking the top ten myths about AIDS/HIV. h/t Bill Wilson}

Related posts:

  1. Sunday Late Night: Roy Blunt’s Values are Being Challenged
  2. Sunday Late Night: Fifty-Two Days
  3. Sunday Late Night: Tiny Chamber Music
  4. Sunday Late Night: Who is the Commerce Secretary Calling?
  5. Sunday Late Night: Gay Penguins Threaten Parents’ Rights