AIDS was big in the news this week: 3,000 experts, politicians and patients were gathered at the United Nations to discuss new treatments and progress toward a cure. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan declared that $10 billion a year is needed to fight the plague that afflicts 36 million people and has killed 22 million. So far, the world’s richest nations have ponied up 5 percent of that.Meanwhile, right in the middle of Los Angeles County, a local government has been dealing with a controversy involving AIDS survivors that suggests how complex the social, as well as medical, issues can be.For 10 years after the 1981 discovery of the AIDS virus, the question was less about how to live with the disease than about how long you’d live, period. Death was certain, the tragedy so apparent and widespread that the disease became a global priority. And, after a decade of research, agony and tragedy, AIDS, at least in this country, is no longer a death sentence.
Source: Living With AIDS | L.A. Weekly