In August of this year, I attended the Sixteenth International HIV/AIDS Conference in Toronto. The most striking feature was a life size photograph of a preteen girl wearing her mother's too large dress and shoes. It brought home to me the reality of the catastrophe facing our world.

Grandmothers mothering, children mothering, mothers gone. As we argue back and forth about protocols and strategies, lives continue to be lost around the globe, new infections mount daily. The Caribbean, second most affected after Africa, is about to be eclipsed by Asia and maybe China.

My second heartbreak was the Caribbean pavilions. Africa was very well represented. Every African country had done there home work, produced books, CD's, informational pamphlets. Booths were well manned with informative, lively, communicative individuals. Not so with the Caribbean.

The entire Caribbean was represented by a few, mostly shared booths. Most were not manned for large periods of time during the day. Information was sparse and it was evident we were still very uncomfortable with this disease after being affected and infected for 26 years. My girlfriend and husband died in 1983 from AIDS in Jamaica after only two short years.

Cash and Kind

As we questioned persons, stigma (leading to a lack of manpower) and ready money, were the two biggest factors given. Our NGO's, Ministries of Health, and Governmental Organizations appear to be cash poor and personnel poor. Where are the international billions supposedly being thrown at the epidemic going? It appears to be sticking at other places and falling short of the front line workers and sufferers themselves.

Money is available for some drugs classified as Highly Active Anti-Retrovirals, (HAART) but money for drugs for OI's, Opportunistic infections is sadly lacking. As we promote HIV/AIDS as a chronic disease just like Diabetes, we say, “Have we taken into account the drastic effects of Diabetes?” It eventually kills, as does HIV/AIDS. The medications have severe effects and yet are most needed to control the symptoms. The focus must be prevention even more so than treatment. Whatever needs to be done to prevent, that is what we must do. The “cost of a treatment only” focus will break our backs and retard economic growth for decades.

The Not So Silent Killer

Only the naive can ever believe you can hide AIDS. Allowing stigma to make us hide ourselves will only push the disease further underground and continue the rampant spread of the disease. You may hide being HIV positive for a time, but you cannot hide AIDS. AIDS is an “in your face” disease. How often are lips, cheeks, and lymph nodes swollen, as well as other skin problems? Visible Symptoms of infections take over the body as the immune system weakens.

Let us love each other, get involved, lend a helping hand; do your part. Together we can make a difference. Practice the ABC method: