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DEL.ICIO.USHow has AIDS impacted your life?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day. We’ve come a long way from the early ’80s when an AIDS diagnosis was a likely death sentence and carried a stigma. There were few treatment options then, and many Americans were terrified of people infected with HIV.
Today, AIDS in the United States has become a chronic condition to be managed. Americans with the disease are stronger and healthier, their concerns fading from public view.
Like many other people, I’ve lost friends, family and colleagues to the disease. I recall fondly one friend, a fashion designer, who in 1990 made my wedding dress and those of other women even as he battled AIDS, a battle he eventually lost. At his funeral, the church was filled with women who showed up in the wedding dresses he had designed for them. He was a talented, lively, lovely young man who left us way too soon.
How has AIDS impacted your life? Have you lost someone close to you to the disease? Do you know someone living with the disease? What is your own experience?
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Comments
By Active Duty Mom
December 1, 2008 2:09 PM | Link to this
My father was diagnosed with HIV approximately 7 years ago and thanks to God and modern medicine, he is alive and doing well. Still, I sometimes feel like I’ve got such limited time with him and am trying to make the most of it, especially stationed almost 1,000 miles away. I still pray that someday soon we will have a vaccine and a cure! It’s still interesting to me how many of my friends asked how he got it. I chalked it up to curiosity, but also asked them in return, “Does anyone ask someone how they got cancer?” so that they think more about why they really want to know.
By dittohead
December 2, 2008 9:17 AM | Link to this
People living with AIDs & HIV & syphlis are the result of Life style choices...They are...they are transmitted as a result of physical, sexual activity..Some people choose to roll the DICE & get stung. I am indifferent..