Aids Research: HIV Epidemic

To the Editors:

In 1981 as I was working in a hospital in Houston, TX, the first wave of the HIV epidemic was beginning to lap at our hospital doors. Not knowing what the cause of this horrific disease was, fear reigned supreme as health care workers struggled to provide the best care available to the young men that we were caring for. Twenty years later, as HIV has increasingly become an infection of poor women. Many strides have been made in delaying HIV’s inevitable course. There are reasons for hope and concern.
As we commemorate world AIDS day we need to remember those in the third world and in developing nations who cannot access the medications that they need to delay the illness. We need to remember the poor and disenfranchised in this country who lack the power to prevent the disease and lack the money to access needed services. We must continue to push our researchers towards a vaccine and finally we need to remember that prevention is so much better than treatment. Each and every day we can take individual actions to prevent the spread of HIV adding one more step towards the end of the epidemic.

–Lori K. Morgan Flood, M.Ed., CHES
Director of Health Education
Student Health Services