Every day I meet people who care passionately about their communities and the men, women, and children who live there. For each person or family in those communities, there are causes that mean much to them. To help illustrate or publicize those causes, people wear bracelets, carry signs, or wear ribbons. Folks fighting breast cancer have become very good about placing a pink ribbon on thousands of items to carry their message. This marketing tool is highly effective because the general public truly believes that anyone can be diagnosed with cancer. It is an illness that does not discriminate.
They would be correct in this assessment!
But what about the less well known ribbon, the red one? Who stands behind that ribbon and why? In the 1990s, AIDS activists were inspired by the ribbon medium, and decided to make ribbons for the people who fight against AIDS. The ribbon that represents AIDS became red as this is the color of passion.
During the Tony awards, a photo was taken of the actor Jeremy Irons, who had the bright red ribbon pinned on his chest. Most people who see the red ribbon assume that the person wearing it is a gay man or a person with a gay son. Although the virus is almost 30 years old, many people still believe it affects only gay men. They think to themselves, “I don’t need to wear a red ribbon, because I could never become infected.”
They would be terribly wrong in their assessment!
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 468,578 people were living with AIDS in America at the end of 2007, around 20,000 more than 2006. An estimated 3,792 children aged under 13 were living with AIDS at the end of 2007. The vast majority of these children acquired HIV from their mothers during pregnancy, labor, delivery or breastfeeding.
In the 34 states with a history of confidential name-based reporting, adult or adolescent males accounted for nearly three-quarters of new HIV diagnoses, more than two-thirds of whom were infected by male-to-male sexual contact. However, heterosexual contact accounted for 83 percent of diagnoses among women and 14 percent among children. Injection drug use was the transmission route in 10 percent of male and 16 percent of female diagnoses in 2007. HIV was diagnosed in 159 children in 2007, all but 20 who became infected by mother-to-child transmission.
So, based upon these numbers, heterosexuals, homosexuals, children - all of us - are susceptible to contracting the virus.
Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day. When I get dressed, I’m going to pin a red ribbon on my lapel. I’m going to wear it with passion for a cause I believe in and fight for daily. I hope that you will join me in this effort and wear your red ribbon.
With 18,000 infected people in Michigan, we will wear it for our brothers, sisters, parents, co-workers, friends and children.
AIDS affects all of us, and all of us can help fight AIDS.