By Staff
Learning about AIDS and HIV wasn't something which happened all at once.
Remembering back, we heard rumors about young people dying. Over time, more and more news came out. At first, we thought we were all safe, if we didn't lead a lifestyle only found in sections of cities like San Francisco.
Ryan White changed all that. A young man from Indiana who was dying spoke out about AIDS.
White was born in Kokomo on Dec. 6, 1971, just a few months after my first child, only Ryan was a hemophiliac. He needed blood transfusions twice a week, to replace Factor VIII.
Whether this is how he contracted AIDS, or it was from surgery to remove part of his lung, he was given six months to live in December 1984.
Sentiment though was strong against White. He wasn't welcome in his school, or by many in his community. He and his mother moved to another town in Indiana, where they were welcomed.
He was a symbol of those who hadn't "sinned," yet still would die from this disease.
Dec. 1 is National HIV and AIDS Awareness Day.
White educated one generation about AIDs, appearing on news shows and was the cover story on popular news magazines.
He survived five years longer than the doctors thought possible.
AIDS crosses all racial and economic barriers. Those with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, whose immune systems are damaged, often end up with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS.
I became aware of how many were affected and dying, right here in our communities, through stories I did down in South Bend, Ind. Dinners and fundraisers were held to raise money for research and to help those with the disease.
But the plight of those with AIDS really became a reality to me when I was visiting San Francisco. I went to one of the fancy department stores we didn't have here. There I came face to face with those who were not only stricken with, but had died from AIDS.
Hanging from the very top floor, passing down to the basement, was a colorful fabric quilt – the AIDS quilt.
The power of that quilt is something I have never forgotten.
Those scraps represented the lives of so many who died before their time.
Mothers, fathers, wives and husbands, friends, sisters, brothers, all pieced together photos, words and designs, which would tell others of the one who died.
Some were babies, some were white, some were old, some were black. No one was safe from its reach
The quilt, or sections of it, traveled across the country those years. I believe it was in the late 80s. I seem to remember a portion of the quilt made the cover of Time magazine.
Hopefully, 25 years after the first case was diagnosed in 1981, in the United States, the prejudice and fear associated with the disease has lessened and will one day be eliminated.
But since those years, AIDS has somehow been pushed into the background with terrorism, hurricanes and E coli getting more media play.
AIDS and HIV are a serious global problem. There are still many people that don't know how to prevent it and there isn't enough money or funds available to pay for medicine to treat and save those with the disease.
Education is a most important tool to stop its spread and power.
There are nearly 12 million Web results for a search on HIV and AIDS. How many of those in Africa have a computer?
Though we all can't volunteer to go to Africa and educate the people about how to prevent AIDS and seek treatment for HIV, we can support those who do. We can educate the next generation.