Just imagine how outraged you would be if 13,000 UCLA students
were diagnosed with AIDS and most of your peers wouldn’t live
past the age of 40. But such concern vanishes when the statistics
are removed by a few thousand miles.
Those specific statistics ““ belonging to the countries of
Botswana and Swaziland ““ are the most severe in the worldwide
AIDS epidemic. The seven countries of sub-Saharan Africa are home
to barely 10 percent of the world’s population but were
witness to 75 percent of the 3 million AIDS deaths globally in
2003.
The AIDS situation is a mass of numbers: relief funding,
infection rates, drug costs, life expectancy, profits, deaths; and
it is easy to get lost under piles of statistics. Though the
numbers may be confusing, the reality is not: Millions of people
are dying.
Awareness campaigns and access to crucial drug therapies largely
have removed AIDS from the forefront of most Americans’
conscience. Though, as the disease becomes increasingly invisible
in wealthy countries, we cannot allow a myopic outlook to blur the
tragic realities occurring throughout the rest of the world.
The UCLA community, in particular, shouldn’t be immune
from confronting this tragedy, especially when so many
opportunities for education, service and awareness are
available.
Students can increase their understanding by enrolling in one of
the two dozen classes offered on HIV/AIDS each year. Professor
Roger Bohman’s MCD Bio 40, one of the most popular classes on
campus, even gives students a conduit to make an impact outside the
classroom.
Additionally, the often overlooked UCLA AIDS Institute has
started an ambassador program to involve undergraduates in
community service and awareness efforts. The institute, one of the
leaders in AIDS research, also has many programs in and outside the
lab related to education, prevention and treatment.
The student-run Dance Marathon is a 26-hour party that raises
funds for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. The
project generated more than $110,000 last year, nearly double the
results of 2002’s marathon, and additional dancers surely
will improve its future contributions.
Beyond the opportunities specific to UCLA, all people can take
part in the annual AIDS Walk, donate time or money to local
hospitals and shelters, or simply educate themselves and their
peers about the disease.
The future of the battle against HIV/AIDS is dependent on
well-informed and concerned citizens, particularly in the large
industrial nations responsible for much of the financing and
efforts focused on overcoming the epidemic.
Wealth has insulated many countries from the kind of devastation
occurring in Africa and emerging in India and several other Asian
regions. If we can imagine 35 percent of UCLA students suffering
from the disease and accordingly be enraged, why can’t we at
least be proactive, knowing for certain that up to 35 percent of
poverty-stricken nations are suffering in this way?