A Health Message

So, like most of you, I became cognizant of the outside world in the mid to late 1980s/early 1990s - when HIV and AIDS dominated the headlines. Pieces like "Angels in America" and "And the Band Played On" described the devastation through art. Deaths of artists like Keith Haring, athletes like Arthur Ashe, and kids my age like Ryan White made it vivid to mainstream America - as did the fact that the disease quickly spread from the coasts to every state in the country. Magic Johnson got HIV and everyone assumed that he would die soon...but he didn't as medical advances were made. As he remained healthy enough to play in the Olympics, news about HIV/AIDS was pushed to the back pages of the newspaper. I don't think my younger brother and sisters (only 5 years younger) grew up fearing it as a devastating plague in the same way that I did. The urgency was gone and a generation became complacent.

That's why to me - and to all of you - yesterday's news that a new, rare strain of HIV has been detected should be alarming. Yes, it's confined to one gay man for now, but we all know how that story ends.