by Susannah Indigo
(12/01/08)
"The other swans laugh and call me names, for I have HIV."
--Travis, a teenager from Washington D.C., writing in Teen Voices of AIDS.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. The theme "Lead -- Empower -- Deliver" highlights the leadership emphasis for 2008. Here are some of the things to be reading this year about what's happening in the battle against HIV/AIDS:
"There could be an AIDS vaccine in four years," says a 2008 Nobel Prize winner, French scientist Luc Montagnier But people said this many years ago also -- can it possibly come true? Several vaccine trials have failed, and the challenges and complexity of battling this virus remain high.
Hope is provided by this piece of news -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg helped launch a new AIDS Vaccine Design and Development Laboratory last week at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park. This new lab will be exclusively devoted to the development of an AIDS vaccine, but will also help train the next generation of AIDS vaccine specialists in New York and worldwide.
Be sure to read this interview with the writer Edmund White, where he explains why it might be wiser to have safe sex with twenty strangers than unsafe sex with your partner -- AIDS, Arts and Responsibilities: An Interview With Edmund White.
Also check in on the current facts at Avert.org, an international AIDS charity.
And last but not least, visit Babeland or the Condom Depot to check out thousands of different types of condoms and even learn the latest about the right fit. Or review the winners of the 2009 Best Condoms Awards!
