December 1st each year is World AIDS Day. As this modern day plague affects countries all over the world, including The Bahamas, it is vital that all of us become aware of the startling facts:

:rip:Five people worldwide die of AIDS every minute of every day. HIV has hit every corner of the globe, infecting more than 42 million men, women and children, 5 million of them last year alone.

Worldwide, and in 2002 alone, :rip:AIDS claimed 3 million people last year. That's over 8,000 people every day. But the story does not end there: just under 14,000 new cases of HIV infections occur every single day.

95% of all AIDS cases occur in the world's poorest countries. In several southern African countries, at least one in five adults is HIV positive. In 2000, the HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women in South Africa rose to its highest level ever: 24.5% bringing to 4.7 million the estimated total number of South Africans living with the virus.

That's a terrifying thought. And it's the reality that millions of people in developing countries are living with HIV and AIDS as you read this: communities devastated, teachers and doctors dying every day, people's futures shattered, because they can't afford the drug treatments that are helping people living with HIV and AIDS in richer countries like ours.

You can make a difference. Find out about HIV. Make a donation. Wear the Red Ribbon.

Worldwide Statistics

People newly infected with HIV in 2002: 5 million
:rip:AIDS deaths in 2002: 3 million...that's over 8,000 deaths per day
Estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2002: 42 million
:rip:Total of AIDS deaths at the end of 2002: 28.1 million
Total number of AIDS orphans: 13.2 million

Click here for the 2003 AWARE catalogue. (http://www.yorick.org/yorick.org/b2-img/blogpics/aidsday2003.pdf)

Source: World AIDS Day 2003 website (http://www.worldaidsday.org/)

December 1st each year is World AIDS Day. As this modern day plague affects countries all over the world, including The Bahamas, it is vital that all of us become aware of the startling facts:It is also important to point out, that the AIDS rate in THIS country is 3.5% as of 2001.

"In Latin America and the Caribbean, The Bahamas and Guyana will be experiencing the greatest impact on their growth rates. Growth rates will be reduced from 1 percent to 0.4 percent."
"In The Bahamas, 60 percent of deaths among children less than 5 are due to AIDS."
-Source: International Programs Center, Population Division

This is terribly frightening.

If what you two have said in your postings is true, and I have no reason to doubt you, then this is indeed a shocking epidemic. What makes it so shocking is that it is a comparatively quiet one. Quiet, in the fact that most people are unaware of its devastation and reach - it is not "big" news. Thank you both for your information.

If what you two have said in your postings is true, and I have no reason to doubt you, then this is indeed a shocking epidemic. What makes it so shocking is that it is a comparatively quiet one. Quiet, in the fact that most people are unaware of its devastation and reach - it is not "big" news. Thank you both for your information.
EXACTLY. Ignore the problem long enough and it will go away, right?

EXACTLY. Ignore the problem long enough and it will go away, right?
Exactly Joe! Or throw money at it and maybe it will go away. (Mind you, a bit more money might be of help for research.)

As someone who has seen three people die of AIDS - I buried two as no one else would take the service - I have heard all the excuses for the illness. Let me play the Devils Advocate and repeat them. I hope that you or someone else will refute them. I think it is important to get these false ideas out in the open where the fresh air can expose them for what they are - misinformation. I fear that there maybe some people reading this who agrees with one or more of them.

1.) AIDS is the disease of those without a moral compass. The IV drug user, the homosexual, the promiscuous heterosexual.

2.) AIDS is God’s judgement on those people.

3.) If you don’t do any of the above you will not get AIDS!

4.) Just being in the same room with a sufferer is dangerous you can get AIDS from just touching them.

My first experience with a person with AIDS is related in my story on this site, Bahamas Religions/ Connoisseur of Clay Feet. I hope you will read it and see that not all people are blind.

Exactly Joe! Or throw money at it and maybe it will go away. (Mind you, a bit more money might be of help for research.)

As someone who has seen three people die of AIDS - I buried two as no one else would take the service - I have heard all the excuses for the illness. Let me play the Devils Advocate and repeat them. I hope that you or someone else will refute them. I think it is important to get these false ideas out in the open where the fresh air can expose them for what they are - misinformation. I fear that there maybe some people reading this who agrees with one or more of them.

1.) AIDS is the disease of those without a moral compass. The IV drug user, the homosexual, the promiscuous heterosexual.

2.) AIDS is God’s judgement on those people.

3.) If you don’t do any of the above you will not get AIDS!

4.) Just being in the same room with a sufferer is dangerous you can get AIDS from just touching them.

My first experience with a person with AIDS is related in my story on this site, Bahamas Religions/ Connoisseur of Clay Feet. I hope you will read it and see that not all people are blind.


Ignoring the Pandemic is the reason people do not understand the word PREVENTION. People make sex from something beautiful to something profound and ugly. What ever happen to the protection and the late-night talks on the mind. Sex is beautiful, it sells, and it kills. While companies and organizations are finding and looking for cures, why dont people use protection or abstain from sex. Love will save everyone but know.