HIV/AIDS: Everyone’s battle

By Jennie Herriot

World AIDS Day, the international day of action against
HIV/AIDS, isn’t just being observed where AIDS kills millions
every year. It’s being observed at UCLA because AIDS
isn’t someone else’s problem ““ it’s ours
too.

Today an estimated 40.3 million people are living with HIV/AIDS,
2.1 million of whom are children under the age of 15. Statistics
may seem abstract, but each number represents someone’s
daughter or son, sister or brother, friend or spouse.

More than 20 million people have died from AIDS since the
disease was identified in 1981. That’s approximately 800
times the undergraduate population of UCLA. And worldwide, more
than 6,000 people between the ages of 15 and 24 contract HIV each
day.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that
roughly 25 percent of the almost 1 million AIDS sufferers in the
U.S. do not know that they have the disease. Sub-Saharan Africa
““ the focus of World AIDS Day at UCLA this year ““ is
home to only 10 percent of the world’s population, yet 64
percent of the world’s HIV/AIDS victims, as well as over 80
percent of children who suffer from HIV/AIDS. And many of these
people do not have access to anti-retroviral drugs, which could
prolong and increase the quality of their lives.

The disease is entirely preventable. Unlike the Black Death or
smallpox, the transmission of HIV can be stopped with the necessary
knowledge and the right tools.

Though we as students can’t fly to Mozambique tomorrow and
distribute medicine to AIDS patients, we can take action at UCLA or
in nearby communities. So get tested, participate in Dance Marathon
or make a donation to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis,
and Malaria. Attend AIDS Walk Los Angeles, skate at RollAIDS or
help Project Angel Food to deliver meals to AIDS victims.

Years from now, when your grandchildren ask you what you did to
help the millions suffering from AIDS, you can truthfully say,
“I did what I could. I made a difference.”

Herriot is the public relations chair for Dance Marathon and
a former Daily Bruin news contributor.