OPINION: What I Hope for: A World United Against AIDS

June 5, 2006 — -- I was diagnosed with HIV 21 years ago but probably caught it several years before that. I am among the lucky ones who survived until good drugs became available to allow my life to continue.

But I have an income and health insurance. Those without these advantages would have far fewer chances to live this long with this disease -- or any disease for that matter.

The HIV epidemic was painful in its early years, especially as I and all of us buried many friends and suffered through its uncertainties and devastation. Fortunately, I can now also be happy that some progress has been made.

Almost 1,000 babies were born in the United States with HIV in 1992; today we have fewer than 50 HIV-infected babies born here each year.

Deaths due to AIDS in the United States hit an all-time high of 50,877 in 1995. Combination therapy was introduced in 1996, and deaths plummeted so that only 18,017 AIDS deaths were recorded in 2003.

Now there is news of even better drugs that are easier to take that have fewer side effects and offer more complete suppression of HIV.

I remember well the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2000. Until then, no conference had taken place where AIDS persists the most -- south of the equator and in the developing world.

"Access for All" was the main theme of the conference. Until then, no one thought it possible that anti-HIV drugs could be made available in the part of the world where 95 percent of the infections happen to be.

Now, in 2006, 15 percent of South Africans who need anti-HIV drugs have them, and that number is going up rapidly. That has brought hope and encouragement to health care workers and infected people there and everywhere.

On this, the 25th anniversary of HIV, I thought that we might share some of the things that we hope we will see in whatever remains of my lifetime.

I hope that the scientific advances continue, that the therapies get better, become easier to take, and become more effective. I hope that everyone who needs them can get them and that we develop an HIV vaccine.