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The scourge of AIDS As the International AIDS Conference meets this week in Washington, we collect columnist Michael Gerson’s articles on the disease.
"Studies in Uganda, Kenya and South Africa indicate circumcision halves the risk of adult males contracting HIV through heterosexual intercourse...Researchers hope that broader circumcision will remove a contributor to this deadly cycle." - June 1, 2007 .
Schalk van Zuydam
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AP
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"Testing is difficult to promote if AIDS is a death sentence. Treatment and prevention, in the end, cannot be separated. And the goal of universal access to treatment seems morally unavoidable. However expensive this commitment might be, there is also a cost to letting 40 million people and more die -- a cost the world should not be willing to pay." - October 3, 2007 .
Mari Kelley
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Peace Corps
"Support for the fight against AIDS is not a matter of being a "Christian" or a "conservative" -- or a liberal or a Buddhist. It is an expression of compassion and empathy, which also reflects a serious conception of America's role in the world." - January 18, 2008 .
Paula Bronstein
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GETTY IMAGES
"For Zilose, a gentle woman in her early 40s, it began with the death of her husband, probably from AIDS. Then she became sick, with typical AIDS symptoms -- trouble with her legs, a persistent cough. After spending some time in her home village, she returned to Lusaka to find that her in-laws had taken all her property and had ordered her out of her home. This is a common practice called "property grabbing," in which relatives of a dead husband steal everything from the widow and her children. Zilose refused to leave her home, but she was forced to send her 10-year-old child away because she could no longer afford to care for him." - April 4, 2008 .
ROBERTO SCHMIDT
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AFP/GETTY IMAGES
"It is sometimes asserted that this massive effort to treat HIV-AIDS in Africa pulls health professionals away from other fields or that funds might be better spent on other health priorities. But these arguments make little sense in a place such as Zambia, where one in six people is infected with HIV. [Center for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia director Dr. Jeffrey] Stringer estimates that a Zambian boy of 15 today has a 70 percent chance of getting the disease in his lifetime. 'If we don't deal with this,' says Stringer, 'there is no point dealing with diabetes or tropical diseases.'" - April 11, 2008 .
Roberto Schmidt
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AFP/GETTY IMAGES
"An AIDS clinic in Washington -- a new ground zero in the American AIDS crisis -- is no place for the squeamish...The HIV infection rate in Ward 7 is at least 2.4 percent -- higher than the national rate in Ethiopia, Ghana or Burundi. Among 40- to 49-year-olds in the District, 7.2 percent are HIV-positive. If 7.2 percent of all 40-somethings in America were infected with anything, there would be no other topic of national discussion -- every alarm would ring, every clock would stop. In this case, the victims are geographically isolated, often poor and thus largely invisible." - April 31, 2009 .
Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post
"The main purpose of needle exchange, according to [PreventionWorks staff member Reggie] Jackson, the supervisor of the mobile unit, is to keep people alive until they can get clean -- a process that can take years, if it happens at all. Needle-sharing is the third-leading cause of HIV infection in our nation's capital. It is also a major contributor to the spread of hepatitis C, the main cause of liver transplants in the United States. Jackson is well acquainted with these facts because, while an addict, he contracted both diseases." - August 5, 2009 .
Astrid Riecken
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FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
"Conservatives also need to show some flexibility to preserve the development coalition. Often, they interpret any mention of "family planning" as a coded reference to abortion. But contraception is an unavoidable part of public health. Effective AIDS prevention is certainly more than just a bowl of condoms at the clinic door -- but it includes the use of condoms during high-risk sexual activity." - April 30, 2010 .
SIPHIWE SIBEKO
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REUTERS
"[President Obama's] new AIDS strategy is sound. Still, it is not a substitute for a strong, well-funded presidential initiative to combat AIDS in America -- which is the next, logical step." - July 15, 2010 . Photo: A detailed look at a panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. (Getty)
"During a visit to South Africa, I asked a very conservative Christian pastor engaged in an HIV/AIDS ministry how he views the condom issue. 'When I'm dealing with 10- and 12-year-old girls,' he answered, 'I tell them to respect themselves and delay sex. When I'm dealing with sex workers, I give them condoms, because their lives are at stake.'" - November 23, 2010 .
Denis Farrell
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
"After 30 years and 30 million funerals, the end of the global AIDS epidemic is suddenly, unexpectedly, within sight. It would be a final victory for this clever killer if America were too preoccupied and inward-looking to notice and act." - November 11, 2011 .
KEVIN LAMARQUE
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REUTERS
"Monrovia, Liberia -- A young woman named Princess, already a refugee from civil war, was diagnosed with HIV in 2008. She began treatment but stopped taking her medicine. After an AIDS-related infection brought her back to the hospital, a nurse wrote out the words “life” and “death” on a piece of paper and told her to choose one. Since that clarifying moment, she has taken her pills faithfully. As a result, her son, Michael, now 18 months old, was born HIV-free." - June 21, 2012 .
Morgana Wingard
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ONE | MORGANA WINGARD
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Section:/opinions
!['It is sometimes asserted that this massive effort to treat HIV-AIDS in Africa pulls health professionals away from other fields or that funds might be better spent on other health priorities. But these arguments make little sense in a place such as Zambia, where one in six people is infected with HIV. [Center for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia director Dr. Jeffrey] Stringer estimates that a Zambian boy of 15 today has a 70 percent chance of getting the disease in his lifetime. 'If we don't deal with this,' says Stringer, 'there is no point dealing with diabetes or tropical diseases.'' - <a data-xslt='_http' href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/10/AR2008041003269.html'>April 11, 2008</a>. <br>
<br>Photo: Beatrice Anyango, center, leads her grandson, Eugene, 3, by the hand as they walk from school to their home in Kibera, one of Africa's largest slums. Eugene's mother died of AIDS when he was a little over a year old.](/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2010/12/01/Others/Images/2010-12-01/PHO-10Dec01-272862.jpg)
!['The main purpose of needle exchange, according to [PreventionWorks staff member Reggie] Jackson, the supervisor of the mobile unit, is to keep people alive until they can get clean -- a process that can take years, if it happens at all. Needle-sharing is the third-leading cause of HIV infection in our nation's capital. It is also a major contributor to the spread of hepatitis C, the main cause of liver transplants in the United States. Jackson is well acquainted with these facts because, while an addict, he contracted both diseases.' - <a data-xslt='_http' href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/04/AR2009080402422.html'>August 5, 2009</a>. <br>
<br>Photo: A drug user, left, talks to the staff inside the van of PreventionWorks, a non-profit handing out clean needles and doing HIV/AIDS testing.](/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/03/04/Editorial-Opinion/Images/pworks.JPG)
!['[President Obama's] new AIDS strategy is sound. Still, it is not a substitute for a strong, well-funded presidential initiative to combat AIDS in America -- which is the next, logical step.' - <a data-xslt='_http' href='http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/07/obamas_hivaids_strategy_sound.html'>July 15, 2010</a>. Photo: A detailed look at a panel of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. (Getty)](/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/07/17/Local/Topic-Stories/Images/148466115-004.jpg)
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