Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Today is June 27

...and that makes today National HIV Testing Day.

Not Friday, when I first mentioned it. (I dated everything on Friday June 27. Stuff at work, checks, everything. Thanks, Zenchick, for pointing this out..)

The fact remains: anyone with any potential to be infected with HIV should be tested.

Look at this:

The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt is in town this weekend...well, 1,000 panels of the quilt. There are over 44,000 panels now, panels to memorialize someone who died of AIDS.

In 1988, the year I started working in public health, I became friends with a guy named Paul. He was young and gay but still mostly in the closet, since he'd been estranged from the family he'd told. Paul was the one who introduced me to the Quilt that year, when all 8,288 panels were displayed on the Ellipse.

We have come so far since 1988...but only just so far. With all we have learned, people are still being infected, people are still unaware of their infections and not being treated, and there is still only treatment, no cure. We still have a long way to go in the fight against HIV/AIDS. And the Quilt keeps getting bigger.

Posted by Nic at June 27, 2004 12:37 PM