I was a teenager in the 80’s and still remember the first person I found out had AIDS. He was a friend of my sister and I had always looked up to him and sort of had a crush on him, but he was older than me. It really scared me to watch him suffer. He got very sick, very quickly and passed away. Health Care for HIV and AIDS patients back then was very rudimentary at best.
Now working in the Health Care field, I see lots of HIV patients living much longer and fuller lives. New discoveries in medicine have made this possible along with generous donations to research and strives towards a cure. I know it’s a long way off, but I look for the day that HIV and AIDS is just a chapter in history and not still on the front pages of our newspapers.