We are all living with HIV/AIDS
AIDS is not just a problem for Africa and the developing world. It is everyone’s problem. After more than a decade of stable or declining rates of new infections, HIV in the United States has begun to increase again, in what UNAIDS has described as a “resurgent epidemic.” Today, more than 1.2 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV.

	Worldwide, at the end of 2005: People living with HIV: 38.6 million New HIV infections: 4.1 million AIDS-related deaths: 2.8 million Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 10 percent of the world’s population, but has nearly 64 percent of the world’s people living with HIV —- 24.5 million. Three-quarters of all women living with HIV globally are in sub-Saharan Africa. In this region, about one in six (17 percent) of the 4.7 million people who need antiretroviral treatment (ARV, anti-AIDS drugs) are receiving it. In contrast, more than 70 percent of people living with HIV in the United States are on ARV treatment. AIDS orphans worldwide: 15 million AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa: 12 million Namibia, end of 2005: HIV infection rate in adults ages 15 – 49: 19.6 percent UNAIDS Report on the Global Epidemic, May 2006.

Most American women who have HIV are infected during sex, and the biggest danger for women is their male sexual partners’ high-risk behavior (for example, injecting drugs, exchanging sex for money, or having sex with other men). According to UNAIDS, 2006 Report on the Global AIDS epidemic, 50 percent of new HIV infections diagnosed are among African Americans, who make up 12 percent of the U.S. population. And 18 percent of newly diagnosed infections are found in Hispanics, who are 14 percent of the U.S. population.

The combination of race and gender is deadly. “African American women are up to a dozen times more likely to be infected with HIV than their White counterparts. AIDS is the leading cause of death among African American women aged 25-34 years and ranks in the top three causes of death for African American men aged 25-34 years." (UNAIDS) Treatment rates are also much lower among African Americans than for Whites.

Do Justice
I believe that AIDS is fundamentally a justice issue. Where one is born, the color of one’s skin, or the amount of money she has should not determine how she dies — yet in our world and our own country, this continues to be the case. People in Europe and North America had access to life-prolonging antiretroviral medications nearly eight years sooner than those in developing countries; the result is that nearly 12 million of the 15 million AIDS orphans worldwide live in sub-Saharan Africa, many with stories like those I shared. And HIV infection is still a reason for denying visa applications to the United States and other countries. As people of faith, we are called to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8). Yet all too often, we have remained silent on this issue. And people are dying because of it.

I am part of the first AIDS generation. Will our children be the last? Or their children? How many generations will follow before an effective cure is found for HIV, and the virus can no longer ravage our world? And what are we — you, me, us — doing to bring that day closer?

Maryn Olson earned a B.A. in political science and humanities from Valparaiso University. Since November 2003, she has served through the ELCA’s Global Mission with HIV/AIDS programs of partner Lutheran churches in southern Africa. Currently, she is serving as the resource person for Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia AIDS Action.


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