Tomorrow is World AIDS Day, which has been observed yearly on December 1st since 1988. This year’s theme concentrates on leadership and how leaders globally must step up to combat the spread of HIV and AIDS. As Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu remarked:
“This is not the time for complacency nor apathy…It is the time for compassionate leadership.”
- Some Jamaican dancehall musicians promote the notion of safe sex despite songs with risqué lyrics. “Young people gravitate towards the dance and AIDS is more prevalent among that set, so we have to push (safe sex),” said singer Aidonia to the Jamaica Observer.
- Researchers at the University of Miami are examining a plant from the Amazon rainforest that had been used as a cure-all in several Andean countries against ailments like AIDS.
- The government of Uruguay will soon start an ad campaign aimed at women and young adults to promote safe sex and decrease the spread of AIDS.
- Human rights group Survival International released a report warning of an increase in HIV/AIDS among indigenous communities including the spread of gonorrhea and syphilis to women of Brazil’s Yanomani natives.
- Previous posts on this blog on AIDS in the Americas includes the theory that HIV was spread into the hemisphere via Haiti, Brazilian government efforts to distribute discounted antiretroviral drugs, and how migration into Mexico may be causing a spike in AIDS cases there.
Sources- AFP, The Latin Americanist, Times Online, Jamaica Observer, MiamiHerald.com, Xinhua, Wikipedia, UNAIDS, World AIDS Campaign
Image- earthtimes.org
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