One-quarter of your family is going to die within a couple of years; one in five of your friends will perish; and there isn’t much you can do about it except watch them suffer. The very notion is overwhelming, yet it is the reality people in sub-Saharan Africa live with every day, just as American gay men did in the early years. The cause: AIDS. The saddest part is that it is all completely avoidable.
As the Washington Post recently opined in anticipation of this week’s UN Security Council health issues meeting, any real thoughts of medications in the African epidemic are “impractical.” They’re right: Even at manufacturer’s cost, the anti-HIV drugs are just vaccine, and that pill is years away. In the meantime, a virtual vaccine could be the answer: safe choices!
This disease – there and here, too – is driven by intimate behaviors over which people have significant control. In the case of Africa, it’s heterosexual sex. The answer to their AIDS epidemic is clear: Sexual behaviors must change. Gender inequality, lack of education and interpersonal skills, lack of condoms – all are barriers, but they are not insurmountable.
But isn’t that our answer. too? The vaccine pill will be just as long in coming for us. In the meantime, we also have the virtual vaccine of safe choices! Vaccinate yourself daily by choosing wisely – let’s end this epidemic.
This article appears in January 14 • 2000.