World AIDS Day 2003

In a BBC interview, Dr Richard Feachem, Executive Director for the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria called AIDS "the biggest disaster in human history." And if you look at the absolute figures, he's -unfortunately- right. 40 million people are now HIV-infected, a new infection occurs every 8 seconds, and in Zambia, school teachers die faster than new ones can be trained. If no cure is found soon, the epidemic might take on Black Plague-like proportions --that virus wiped out two-thirds of Europe in the Middle Ages and only stopped because it killed people faster than they could infect others.

But even sadder than the epidemic itself is the general indifference about it, even though the world's biggest countries, India, China and Russia, are about to become the top AIDS nations. Yes, we have an AIDS Day, but research, prevention and even mere acknowledgement of the disease are still sorely lacking.

Sigh. On a day like today, I wish I'd studied medicine and specialized in virology.