Many of the world's 40 million HIV/AIDS victims DON'T KNOW that they are infected

With all of the focus that has been (rightly) placed on the potential Avian Flu pandemic
in the news, other pandemics that have, in a sense, become globally endemic, are often
ignored by the media.  To this end, I am providing a brief update on the AIDS pandemic as
informed by Reuters AlertNet.

Unquestionably the most alarming note in the news story is this sentence: "because
infected individuals still suffer from ostracism and discrimination, the vast majority of
the about 40 million infected people in the world have never been tested for HIV and are
unaware of their status, it said."

Before I address the nature of anti-HIV/AIDS discrimination, I'd like to take a moment to
explain (or, for those of you who know, reiterate) the reason why this is a particular
problem.  HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can only be transmitted through a very
specific group of behaviors involving mother/child transmission or through
behavioirsblood and certain sexually generated fluids.  As such, unlike many other deadly
diseases, HIV/AIDS transmission can actually be effectively prevented with knowledge and
the application of prevention techniques.

Because two of the most common behaviors known to spread HIV/AIDS are needle sharing
(among IV drug users) and homosexual intercourse among men, there is a tremendous stigma
surrounding the disease.  People forget that it can be transmitted through heterosexual
intercourse and from mother to child, as well as through accidents involving blood
transmission (including transfusion).  This is not a "gay disease" nor is it a "drug
users disease."  Furthermore, even if it were, this fact, ideally, would not prevent the
application of prevention and medical techniques toward the goal of the disease's
eradication.

Allow me to share a brief story to highlight the importance of knowledge to the
transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Last summer, I met a man and his son who were both HIV+.  We will call the man Jim
(alias).  At the time that he contracted HIV, Jim had been married to his ex-wife for a
number of years.  He left on a business trip for a week, during which his pregnant wife
drove to Florida and had sexual intercourse (a one-night stand) with a "random"
individual, who we will call Bill.  This was the only time that she ever cheated on Jim,
but that man, unknowingly, was infected with HIV.  Bill later discovered this fact, and
called the woman, who had, by then, given birth to an HIV+ child and transmitted HIV to
her husband.

I want to emphasize the fact that Jim did nothing except have sexual intercourse with his
wife, and now he and his son both live with the disease.

The knowledge... just the information, that Bill was HIV+ would have saved three lives. 
Now imagine that, of the 40,000,000 HIV/AIDS+ people like Bill, many of them don't know
their status, either because of a lack of testing availability or because the stigma
surrounding the disease prevents them from being tested.

Each of those people could theoretically go home to their wives or husbands and
unknowingly infect them.

Unfortunately, it's not really possible to spontaneously make HIV/AIDS an acceptable
topic of discussion in many countries or regions of the world (including the United
States).  But we can all do our part to raise awareness.