Hi everyone, today is World AIDS Day. Just to refresh your memory Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS. The virus was first identified in 1984. It was a virus that crossed over from monkeys/apes to humans. Ebola is another virus that is capable of crossing over from one species to another. If possible, read my book Taming Ebola from Amazon Kindle Publishing. One of the reasons for writing about AIDS today was obviously because it is World AIDS day, but to also draw attention to what has happened since 1984. AIDS is the world’s most important public health issue. There is also an article about it in Metro Philadelphia. Also as you know I work in the pharmaceutical industry and I have been fortunate enough to have worked on two drugs that fight HIV and that are still on the market in the US and rest of the world. The objective of World AIDS day is to unite everyone in the fight against HIV and to remember those that are living with the disease and those that have died.

AIDS first got visibility when actor Rock Hudson was diagnosed with it and then eventually died because of it. The virus weakens our immune system and many people die due to opportunistic infections that the compromised immune system cannot fight. Rock Hudson left $250,000 to start the American Foundation for Aids Research (amfAR). Since then Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive. Tennis player Arthur Ashe contracted AIDS because of contaminated blood that he received as a transfusion during surgery. Most recently actor Charlie Sheen admitted he was HIV positive.

There is a huge stigma associated with AIDS because it was believed to be caused by promiscuous sex and sharing of drug needles by intravenous drug users. But as seen with Arthur Ashe’s example, not everyone who contracts AIDS, does so because of their lifestyle. Also it has been proved that AIDS cannot be transmitted by casual contact, food, water and surfaces.

The Metro article lists 10 facts about AIDS. One of them is very sobering and it is that the number of new cases is growing in low- and middle- income countries, predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa. Also these new cases are in girls ages 15-19. Because of advances in medicine and education about transmission, the number of new cases in the Western world has stagnated and in some cases gone down. These are AIDS mature populations. But sub-Saharan population is AIDS naïve population. These countries cannot afford the cost of medications and also there is a huge lack of education. Pharmaceutical companies are making these drugs available through compassionate use and by doing clinical trials in these countries. There are some non-profit pharmaceutical companies developing affordable drugs by getting grants from the Gates Foundation and Clinton Foundation. The countries in the United Nations have agreed to eradicate AIDS by 2030. Let us hope they are successful.