Today, December 1, is World Aids Day, a day of mourning for the 35 million people who have died from this terrible disease and a time for celebration of the amazing advances which have been made in combating its spread and treating its victims.
I remember 32 years ago when I was just starting in medicine. We were just beginning to realize the seriousness of the threat AIDS posed to society. It was a scary time for us. We would go into the room of a patient with HIV, filled with trepidation, terrified of contracting what, at that time, was a certain death sentence.
Thankfully, times have changed. The scientific community has made major strides in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Now, with the proper medication, a person who has tested positive for HIV can expect to live a fairly normal life. The fact is we’ve become used to the disease and we hardly hear about it anymore.
What we forget is HIV/AIDS has not gone away. There are still 1.1 million HIV-positive people in the US and worldwide 940,000 died from it in 2017. The devastation caused by this disease in Third World countries remains horrific.
Although we have made progress against HIV/AIDS and other causes of human suffering, we still have much work to do. All around us are people suffering from disease, caught in the web of poverty and despair, or isolated by prejudice and hate. With this fact before us, “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” Hebrews 10:24.
Let us lift the victims of HIV/AIDS, and all the other victims of sin’s reign, up in prayer and do what we can to ease their suffering. At the same time, let us offer them the hope of a better tomorrow, a time when God “…will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4.
May that day come quickly is my prayer.