- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 30 November 2000 11.53 GMT
The first World Aids Day was held in 1991, at a time when I was still going to the funeral of someone who had died with Aids at least once every month. Things have changed now. Thanks to powerful new drug treatments, people with HIV are now living fuller lives and the death rate has dropped by two-thirds in the last five years. This is great news, but it does mean that HIV has gradually slipped out of the media spotlight, and the importance and value of a day about Aids is now more clearly appreciated by those of us working in the voluntary and public sectors. That's one reason why tomorrow, World Aids Day, when we remember the 34m people worldwide who are living with HIV, is so important.
This year, the theme of World Aids Day is Men Make a Difference. This serves to remind us that men play a vitally important part in preventing the spread of HIV, both in their sexual behaviour and also in their willingness to support HIV organisations and help raise the profile of the illness. Many heterosexual men believe HIV doesn't affect them and isn't relevant to them. This attitude is just as prevalent in developing countries where the bulk of the epidemic is among the heterosexual population.
When it comes to giving donations to HIV charities, men are less likely than women to give time and money - they are less willing to give to street collections, less likely to wear a red ribbon at any time of year, and also less likely to become volunteers. Sometimes they are downright hostile, an attitude fuelled in part by the misconception that HIV only affects gay men. By encouraging all men to take more of an interest in supporting HIV organisations, we can do a lot to break down the prejudice and stigma that people living with the disease have to face.
We have all witnessed tremendous shifts in the epidemic over the last five years. Combination therapy has dramatically improved the health of many people, but brings with it a different set of complications. While the number of people dying from HIV is falling, the rates of new infections are on the increase. In the UK, 30,000 people are believed to be living with HIV and the groups most affected include people from African communities and gay men.
People with HIV have complex needs and live every day with a life-threatening illness, which carries with it unprecedented stigma. The Terrence Higgins Trust Lighthouse, along with other organisations, aims to campaign to create greater awareness of what living with HIV really means, to tackle the prejudice which sees people sacked for no reason or ostracised from their family, and to provide flexible, needs-driven services.
But the stark reality is that HIV is one of the least popular causes to give to or get involved with, yet the help, support and information we all provide is needed more than ever. There is still no cure or vaccine for HIV and it affects some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in the UK. Every day we help men, women and children deal with the consequences of this terminal illness.
As the full scale of the tragedy unfolding in Africa and Asia has become so terribly apparent - none of us remains untouched by it. Most importantly, though, it is the insularity that has gone. In our pain, grief and anger during the early part of the epidemic it was sometimes hard to appreciate the impact of Aids elsewhere. World Aids Day is no longer about what happens elsewhere. It happens here, every day and the future of how we respond to HIV is now intimately linked with how Aids moves worldwide, making World Aids Day this year more important than ever.
